Apostles in Leather Pants
by Ol'Velsper
Summary: Something sinister stalks the streets of Misaki Town. To keep his promises and protect his loved ones, Shiki Nanaya hunts the terror hiding in the dark. A sequel to I Put On My Robe and Wizard Hat.
1. Chapter 1

Tsukihime is the property is the property of Type-Moon. Melty Blood is the property of Type-Moon and French-Bread. Melty Blood Act Cadenza is the property of Type-Moon and Ecole Software. All additional references and parodies belong to their respective owners.

Prologue

Cover/Tale

Black sludge, formed of all of humanity's curses and evils, piled high atop itself as it greeted the Heroic Spirits and Masters of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Angra Mainyu's final attempt at escape had been bubbling forth from within the depths of the Ryuudou Temple's lake for an entire night – the Divine Spirit's backup plan.

Unfortunately for it, those connected to Shirou Urobuchi had grown aware of his growing presence within the Holy Grail, and had flown to the side of the sludge as they felt the growing sense of familiarity within.

The exhausted group of six Heroic Spirits, only able to stay materialized thanks to the absence of draining auras, let fly with their symbols of legend. Their Noble Phantasms.

The crystallized forms of myth sundered the pillar of curses, but were unable to completely destroy it before it unleashed seven bolts of purest darkness into the skies at super sonic speeds. One of which began to head for Misaki Town – drawn by a familiar aura.

* * *

><p>1Once upon a time...

This was a very long time ago.

A story of when the planet was still relatively quiet, and fires began to spark.

Many things were on this planet, and it was able to work hand and hand with its children.

From the smallest to the largest.

From the most gentle and harmless to the most brutal and violent.

From the creatures in the oceans to those in the skies.

Nothing was said. There was no need. All were one.

However, during this time, an aberration was born.

This child was different from all the other children born up until then, and the planet couldn't find an

explanation as to why this was so.

Yet the differences were clear as day to the planet.

A small spark of fear was born in the planet this day.

Upon hearing the worries of the planet, the king of the moon descended.

"Since you are defenseless and unable to move, I shall defend you."

With such kind, yet paradoxically – scary, red eyes, the king of the moon made this vow.

The planet gladly accepted, and became a ward of the moon.

And so, the people of the moon came down to live.

The planet, moved by the moon king's gallant image, attempted to imitate the moon and create its own king on earth.

However, no matter how hard it tried... a king would not be born.

Over time, the planet wondered if it had done the right thing.

It loved its children, and the people of the moon loved them as well, but...

The strange children...they had a strange allure to the people of the moon.

It wondered if it was alright for its children to be eaten.

It just didn't know.

The king of the moon protected the planet, but not because because it held beauty to him.

He just wanted a beautiful land to replace his country, which had been lost.

And in this fashion, time went on.

Until...

* * *

><p>2Rondo of Blood

Two men faced each other.

One, born of the planet – yet feared by it, kept his feet firmly grounded on the world that had brought him and his into existence. The other, lord and master of the moon, floated high above the skies.

They were members of races too different to get along.

With a face full of contempt for the lesser creature below it, the lord of the moon spreads his mantle of royalty wide in a display of haughty arrogance.

"Haa..." The Man gasps for breath. The being above him was far and away his superior in every aspect of combat. His trembling, broken form was the only result that came with attempting to challenge a Shinso- True Ancestor.

Beings forged by a pact between his own planet and the lord of the moon.

No... the Ultimate Being of the Moon. One that was as far above the True Ancestors as they were above him.

But... it was exciting, the Man thought.

The child of Man, of strange birth, considered a demon by the being flying high above, brought to bear all of his talents and powers as he weaved his way across the broken earth towards the lord of the moon.

The Ultimate Being sneered.

"I don't like your face." The Man spoke his final words. A kaleidoscopic ray of light erupted from the depths of his soul, wiping the sneer off the Lord's face.

It would have to do for now.

The Man and the Lord of the Moon battled like mad men. Each wielded powers beyond comprehension. The Lord's ability to materialize his visions clashed against the Man's ability to materialize all possibilities.

The earth trembled beneath them.

Great furrows were torn up and flung about in their wake.

The skies churned and bled as the amount of power rapidly heated the air. They then gained a ghoulish crimson cast.

The Lord fought to rid the planet of the demon in front of him, and those that would follow.

The Man fought to prove himself superior. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Ultimately the Lord's surprise at seeing such a novel ability wore thin, and he manifested the ultimate vision – the Moon itself.

Yet even its descent didn't phase the Man.

It was a challenge to overcome, and so...he did so.

His soul cried twice that night. Once as his power, burdened to its limit, burned him alive as he turned the full scope of his ability to meet the Lord's final attack, and yet again as he exploited the Lord's one weakness...

Blood, poisonous to the Lord's children, still carried a forbidden temptation to those of the moon. One that even the Lord was unable to resist. Both Moon and Lord were crushed by the Man as he took the opening presented when the Lord feasted on the Man's blood.

The Ultimate Being of the Moon was defeated.

The Man was changed forevermore.

* * *

><p>3Kaleidoscope

True Ancestor. That's what the new representatives of the planet were called once the Lord of the Moon fell.

One flaw made their population decrease.

Sucking blood. Maybe they were wrong due to their lust for the blood from the subjects they punished and ruled over.

Or maybe it was just a simple matter of numbers. Rejected by an ever increasing number of Man, and divided in number, the True Ancestors' numbers began to plummet.

However, their flaw doomed them – despite their tenacity as they fought to suppress Man.

Human blood is the most poisonous, especially for creatures such as the True Ancestors. Once they take in human blood...they become demons.

...

The blonde haired princess gazed upon the throne room with deep red eyes.

Chains rattled. The shackles are fragile – the sins, heavy.

The princess had her usual dream again today. Her dream was a very deep red today also. She doesn't like seeing these dreams. She doesn't see those dreams because she enjoys them...no one had even defined 'enjoyable' to her.

"When tomorrow comes, you will sleep until you become an adult." The princess heard an aged voice speak behind her. The crimson eyed girl turned to face the speaker. A gray haired man in dark clothing, followed by a white haired man clad in black and crimson, beckoned for the princess to follow.

The princess, never having known of guile, blindly followed the two sorcerers out of the throne room. A beautiful ocean of white flowers stretched as far as the eye could see. Their petals reflected the silver light of the full moon.

The blonde followed the stray petals with her eyes as they danced in the night sky.

"The True Ancestors wish to use your body." The gray haired man's companion, dark of skin, spoke up.

The princess merely nodded. Her people, the True Ancestors, didn't do things that were unnecessary. To that end, she'd sleep until she'd be able to make the best use her abilities. Her fate had been sealed since the moment she had been able to call this land – Millennium Castle Brunestud – to her side.

She had proved herself the best.

The heir to Crimson Moon.

"Your reaction...I think this is why life is interesting." The sorcerer, who had sent away the Lord of the Moon, offered the princess a smile. The princess had met these two sorcerers, who would perform her coming of age ceremony tomorrow, at her birth.

Both parties had mutual intrigue for the other. The sorcerers for the princess' stoic acceptance, and she for their expressions – smiling and lively.

It was the only times she had ever seen such things.

"...why do you smile?" The princess wondered.

"You smile because you enjoy your life."

"What kind of thing are enjoyable? Will there be a time when I'll be able to understand them?"

"That's a fifty-fifty shot. Well, since you live a long time...you'll increase the odds." The old sorcerer explained. "It's something you'll get by chance. Like walking alongside the road and tripping over a rock. It's nothing special once you understand it."

The princess tilted her head, sending a curtain of gold over her white petticoats.

"...geez, do you see any stones around here she can trip over?" The younger sorcerer sighed. His sherry eyes crinkled in a look of fond annoyance, and the princess studied his expression intently.

"Hahah...I guess you're right." The older sorcerer smiled. He turned to look at the princess. "One day, you will notice that life is fun just being awake."

She listened carefully to the sorcerers' words. Because, even if she were to forget everything tomorrow, she would repeat it over and over again as if she was living a dream.

Seeing that the two men had stopped speaking, the princess joined them in staring up at the silver moon. The massive celestial body hung closest to these lands that the remaining True Ancestors ruled over.

"So long as you have the Will and Heart to keep looking...someday we will all be happy." The younger sorcerer's voice startled the princess out of her daze. Her red eyes snapped over towards the white haired man. His lips playfully curled up in a faint smile.

Something deep within her heart awakened that day.

* * *

><p>The old man closed the book he had been reading from. His sharp, hawkish features turned towards the young brunette and silver haired girls that had been giving him their full, rapturous attention.<p>

Within Miyu's sherry eyes, the sorcerer could make out reflected sparks of light from the glowing Mystic Code besides him.

Such familiar sherry eyes. Ones that he knew all too well.

"So what happens next?" Ilyasviel von Einzbern wondered. She and Miyu Inui were both covered by their futons in one of the guest rooms of the Emiya Residence. The survivors of the Holy Grail War were currently being attended to by Waver Velvet and those that still could move around.

He had elected himself to the heavy duty of taking care of the two girls. And distracting them from young Shirou Urobuchi's fate. Still, the Mystic Code – a shining crystal sword matching his own – reassured him as to the fate of both.

"So then...shall we see how the rest of this tale unfolds?" Wizard Marshal Zelretch kindly asked Miyu Inui and Ilyasviel von Einzbern as he shifted the book – _Tsukihime_ – into the crook of his left arm. The sorcerer felt something twist within Miyu, sympathizing with the contents of the fairy tale, as Zelretch opened the book and began to read from it once again.

* * *

><p><em>Wise up!<em>

Crimson Moon

Also known as Brunestud of the Crimson Moon and Lord of the Moon. It is the "Ultimate Being of the Moon", and is classified as Type-Moon.

He responded to a call from the collective will of the earth, Gaia, at an indeterminate time, and made a deal to live on Earth in exchange for protection from human corruption.

Like the mob.

True Ancestors based in his image were created by Gaia as a means of protection. They are "children" of Crimson Moon, and may act as his vessels if he needs to resurrect himself. Because nothing says parental love like trying to overshadow your spawn.

Attempted to take over the earth, but was defeated by Zelretch using the Second Magic – Kaleidoscope. The old man cheated like hell, though. Don't let him tell you any differently.

Crimson Moon is also said to hold the highest tier of Mystic Eye – the Noble Color of Rainbow. By contrast, Gorgon Medusa – a Divine Spirit, possessed an inferior level of Mystic Eye, classified as merely Jewel Level.

It's kind of scary to think that there's something stronger than *the* Medusa's petrification eyes...

Type-Moon possesses a skill called _Alt Nagel_ (Ancient Nail) which is described as an immensely destructive pillar of wind which stretches as far as the heavens. Possibly an affinity with the moon's gravitational pull?

He and the True Ancestors' purpose at trying to purge the xeno filth (i.e. Humanity) from the world is embodied in his magical sword - "Real World". None have seen what it's capable of yet except the old man.

But he isn't talking...stingy old kook.


	2. Chapter 2

Tsukihime is the property is the property of Type-Moon. Melty Blood is the property of Type-Moon and French-Bread. Melty Blood Act Cadenza is the property of Type-Moon and Ecole Software. All additional references and parodies belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 1: Sign of Blood Relations

A young boy, with hair as black as night and blue eyes with depths as limitless as the skies themselves, solemnly sat within a hospital bed. His expression was dour as he helplessly glanced at the pieces of furniture that were smoothly cut into countless pieces.

The ground next to the ruined table was stained with countless foodstuffs, which had been spilled onto the linoleum floor as well. In his hands, the young boy - one Shiki Nanaya - wielded a white plastic knife. It had the faintest amount of wood pulp around the flat of the plastic blade.

Shiki remained silent and contrite as he kept his eyes down and focused on his lap. It wasn't because of the growing crowd of doctors and nurses that were rubbernecking as they peeked into his room, although their fearful murmurs still struck deep into his heart with their barbed words. It was because...

He really wanted to see what would happen if he ran his plastic knife along their lines.

The squirming black lines stretched across his vision. Like harbingers of destruction, everything they ran through distorted the world around them. Occasionally the deep black lines would emit sparks of purple and black light and then things would briefly disassemble before his very eyes. His legs, for example, would break off in twelve pieces and briefly hover apart – bed covers and all – for an inch or two before reassembling.

Shiki desperately attempted to glance away whenever things broke apart like that. He had already found himself vomiting a few times when taken unawares. Yet even looking away from the dark lines didn't seem to help. More lines would form if the boy focused too long on normal looking spots between the lines.

They were mocking him. Showing him the uselessness of his attempts to ignore them.

Shiki trembled a bit. One of the nurses began to move towards him, but she was restrained by a doctor. He firmly shook his head.

They weren't paid enough by Makihisa Tohno to ignore this.

The boy continued to silently tremble under the eyes of cold eyes of many adults.

* * *

><p>"They will be bringing you food soon. I want you to eat." Makihisa Tohno spoke to a young girl as he adjusted his tie in front of his dresser mirror. The girl, possessing vibrant red hair and dreadfully pale skin, was sitting on his bed. Both the bed itself and the girl were in a state of disarray, with the blankets on top of the bed looking like they had just been slept in and large pillows on the floor.<p>

The redhead shifted delicately on the edge of bed, adjusting her skirt a bit.

Makihisa narrowed his eyes. "Answer me, Kohaku." He demanded. The girl's glossy amber eyes gazed away from where she had been looking out of Makihisa's bedroom window and towards the older man. She gave a wooden nod, causing her shoulder length hair to bounce away from her skin, revealing bite markings on the nape of her neck.

The sound of the staff's children at play in the backyard reached Makihisa's sharp ears. Kohaku glanced back to the window silently after a few more moments of staring up at Makihisa.

The older man frowned, but said nothing more as he finished adjusting his suit and left the bed room.

Makihisa silently stalked through the halls of his mansion. The master of the Tohno family was dressed to head to a business meeting. The staff of his mansion quickly found other things to do. The ones that didn't had the luxury or time to avoid the tall, gaunt looking man pressed themselves bodily into the walls.

The lord of the mansion's eyes flashed, and an killer aura wafted about him, giving his frame a sinister air. Makihisa gripped onto the railing of the stairs as he made his way down towards the first floor basement.

He paused halfway down the steps. A young boy – clad in a deep blue kimono and with bluish, white hair and bright red eyes happily gazed up at him. "Father." Shiki Tohno happily greeted the older man. The difference between the boy's reaction and the rest of the staff to Makihisa's temper was enough to knock the older man out of his thoughts.

"Shiki..." Makihisa hesitated. "...why aren't you studying?"

The boy's red eyes sparkled as they caught the lights of the mansion. "I'm already done for the day." Shiki announced with a toothy grin. It unnerved Makihisa for some reason. "I wanted to see if I could take Akiha out to the backyard and play. Hisui-chan has been avoiding me for a while now..."

"...No." Makihisa's refusal surprised both the older man and the young boy. "Akiha needs to study, Shiki. She isn't as gifted as you are. I want her to be able to take over in case of an emergency." The older man concluded.

"Mmm...if you say so, father." Shiki drolly replied, red eyes flashing. For an instant, hints of darkness crept into Shiki's light hair, but they vanished in the blink of an eye. Makihisa brought one of his hands up to his forehead as a dull ringing entered the back of his mind. Anger allowed Makihisa to shove the attempt at hypnosis to the side, but Shiki was long gone – laughing as he raced out the front door, by the time Makihisa looked back up.

Makihisa's lips curled distastefully. Yet something within him was proud too. Even if it was a simple illusion, the boy was learning how to wield some of the abilities that the family possessed at a much faster pace than his daughter had.

'I'd better keep an eye out on him, though. He handled the awakening of his demon blood as well as could be expected, but...' Makihisa trailed off. A final sigh escaped his lips as he headed out of the building. There was too much to do and too little time to do it in.

* * *

><p>Hisui briefly pulled away from the crowd of children. Several of them visibly pouted or made noises of disagreement, but the young girl offered them a bright smile. "I'm sorry, but I have to go help indoors now." The small redhead with jade eyes apologized as she stuck out her tongue playfully over at the crowd of children.<p>

'And I don't want to see him...' She fearfully thought. Hisui could see Shiki Tohno crossing the vast yards towards them. With one final smile at the other children, Hisui turned and fairly race away.

Hisui briefly hesitated as she drew close to the mansion, but the loud shouts of the children – inviting Shiki to play with them, made the redhead's nerves smooth out. She quickly moved around the building so she could get a good look up at Master Makihisa's bedroom. There, standing at attention as she always did, was Hisui's twin sister.

Hisui raised a hand to wave at Kohaku.

Kohaku jerked in place, almost looking like she had been napping in place, and pressed herself up against the glass. Kohaku silently mouthed words down towards Hisui with the smallest of smiles on her pale face. Hisui dearly wished she was able to directly talk to her sister, but Master Makihisa had once told her that Kohaku had very important duties to the home, and she couldn't disturb her.

So the two sisters could only routinely see each other like this, separated by glass and what seemed to be immeasurable distance.

"I wish you could come out and play with us." Hisui spoke up to Kohaku once it was her turn. The young girl clasped her hands together in front of her chest as she continued. "Things have gotten so confusing...and scary lately." The jade eyed girl admitted. A stray gust of wind blew through her hair and caused the nearby copse of trees to gently sway as their leafs brushed together.

Kohaku pressed one of his palms up against the window. She mouthed something down to Hisui. A question.

"I was helping indoors when it happened. Something tried to hurt Akiha-chan, but Shiki-chan got in the way." Hisui's words caused Kohaku's eyes to light up with worry. Her lips rapidly flew through several questions. Hisui waited until Kohaku stopped before continuing. "Shiki-chan got taken away by the doctors." Her eyes drooped to the ground. "I...I don't know what happened to him. Or what happened to Tohno-kun...he's gotten so...cold." She whispered.

A shadowed figure, lingering within the shadows cast by the trees nearby, lingered for a few moments. Hearing nothing more from Hisui, it moved away from the redhead.

* * *

><p>Weeks had passed in quiet as Shiki merely rested in his hospital bed. Once in a while he would lightly prod at lines on things, and be rewarded by seeing his fingertips sink in a little into his bed's railings or his mattress.<p>

The lines kept calling out to the young Nanaya, though. The squirming ones on his own body most of all. Fear and delight warred in equal amounts as he endlessly passed his days glancing up and down the lines on his own frame. The heavy bandages that were wrapped around his body weren't a barricade for his vision, as his fingernails easily sliced them off to reveal his skin – still pinkish after his accident.

Fortunately he never got to experiment with the lines on his body. The day he had decided to finally go for it, he had been finally forced to start actually exercising. Being able to move from his bed allowed Shiki to explore the hospital.

Always with a member of the staff, though.

Until...

...

Both Shiki and one of the nurses on staff, a young woman in her early twenties, were walking along one of the halls. Several windows along the side of the hall faced a rolling hill with long green grass. Several trees and flowers sprang about in abundance on the hill side.

The nurse kept a few paces away from Shiki as she kept her own counsel. The young boy's bright blue eyes flashed happily as he merely took in the beautiful hill.

"Miss?" Shiki politely kept his gaze away from the nurse. The young boy somehow felt like he was violating her privacy. He'd wait to look at her until the hovering pieces of the nurse reassembled themselves into her form.

"...what is it?" The nurse guardedly asked. The boy's quiet nature frankly disturbed the young woman, who was often surrounded by young, sqwacking siblings at home. Remembering something half heard, she kept a wary focus on the young boy's hands.

"Can...can we go up there and see the flowers?" Shiki hopefully asked the nurse. His head ached a little when he focused on the woman's face, which had several clusters of lines running along it.

The nurse breathed out a faint sight of relief. The expression of longing on the pale boy's face did more to assure her in the few moments they were speaking than the last fifteen minutes had just walking with him in silence.

"Sure. Sure thing, kid." The nurse's lips quirked into an honest smile as the boy's eyes lit up.

'He should smile more often.' The woman thought. She offered Shiki a hand. The boy took her hand, paused for a few moments, and finally shifted his grip before firmly before taking a hold of it. The reluctance on the boy's part began to push her thoughts in the direction that the young patient was merely shy.

Little did the woman realize – as she was deep within planning on getting back on the other nurses on staff for lying about the boy – that the reason Shiki had taken his time to grip her hand had for other reasons. Shiki had felt his fingers sink into a major line. His nails had brush up to a point where he would have ripped open a vein if he hadn't righted his grip at the last moment.

Shiki resolved to keep that secret to himself as he observed the woman's smiling face through a haze of black lines.

Best not scare away another one.

…

At some point, Shiki notices that the nurse with him is gone. But a strange wavering in the air draws his attention. The lines, looking oddly different from the black lines that destroy things, seem to be heading up to the peak of the hillside.

Shiki's body, aching beneath its layers of bandages, protests the actions as he ascends the rest of the hill alone.

The young boy ignores it, though.

He, more than anyone else, knows that it'd take much more than a little pain to break his body. Thanks to the lines crawling over everything – he knows that pain wouldn't break him. No, it would simply take his fingernails and a quick slash across the lines, these stitches across reality, to end him.

Almost in response to his thoughts, Shiki's body shrugs off the pain as he arrives at his destination.

An endless ocean of green.

The unbearable heat of summer.

Countless black lines running across the heavens.

"Ha..." Shiki let out a tired laugh. Even up here, he could see massive black lines running across the sky. His eyes began to moisten with tears as more giggles escaped his dry lips.

He wondered where the nurse was.

The dark haired boy merely continued to giggle to himself. His legs failed him as he collapsed onto his back in the tall grass.

Trees, flowers, the grass, and the skies were stained with pitch black lines. Shiki was stained with pitch black lines.

Everything was stained with black lines.

'I wonder what it'd be like if I cut my lines...' Shiki wondered again as he stared up at the patchwork sky.

"Hey you. It's dangerous to sit down in a place like that."

A woman's voice came up from behind Shiki.

"Eh...?" Shiki's darkening mood was blown away. Grass clung to his blue hospital scrubs as he quickly sat up and squirmed about in place to face the speaker.

"What do you mean, 'Eh'? You're already a runt so I can't see you if you're sitting in the grass. I was this close to kicking you, so watch out!" The speaker was revealed to be a tall woman with long auburn hair. Her blue eyes match her grumpy expression and voice, sparking as she glanced at Shiki with annoyance.

Shiki's previous dark mood returns three fold as his own eyes grow stormy. "I'm not that short." He glares at the woman in the white t-shirt and blue jeans. "I sit in the fourth row from the front!" The boy declared with a hint of pride in his voice.

The auburn haired woman looks baffled for a few moments, but the sound of another woman throatily chuckles.

"My, then Aoko should take her words back, then." A blue haired woman spoke up as she walked up to them. She wore a sundress in contrast to Aoko's more mundane wear, and she clutched onto a pair of briefcases in her hands. A rounded set of glasses set over a pert nose as they magnify the light reflected off her sparkling sapphire eyes.

"...tch. Why should I apologize to the kid, Elesia?" Aoko moodily replied.

"It's the fourth row." Elesia solemnly replied.

"...ah, fine. I'm sorry." Aoko pouted as she crossed her arms. She moved next to Shiki and plopped down on the grass next to him.

"You're forgiven." Shiki sniffed. He brought his knees up to his chest. He blinked as the auburn haired woman thrust a hand in his face. The boy followed it up to glance at Aoko, who was offering him a grin with as much cheer as one would show an old friend.

"Well, then put it here. It's probably fate that we met here, so why don't we talk for a while?" The auburn haired woman's smile brightened when Shiki uncertainly took a hold of her hand and gave it a tiny shake. "My name is Aoko Aozaki." She nods over at the blue haired woman, who had approached the two of them.

"My name is Elesia." The blue haired woman offered Shiki a humble smile and a polite bow.

"What's yours?" Aoko pressed. Shiki blinked, taking in her cool hand despite the hot weather. He offered the two of them a timid smile.

"My name is Shiki Nanaya..."

And so...they talked.

* * *

><p>The small boy glanced shadily from one side to another. His eyes, which he had once cursed the world for granting him, were proving to be more useful to sneaking around than he had thought. A faint echoing noise caused the boy to crouch low and hang near the walls of the doorway he was ghosting near.<p>

Shiki turned towards the noise, squinted, and stared hard at the walls in between him and the source of the noise.

The scribbling lines almost jerked to attention. They swarmed around the point in the walls that he was intently gazing at. The young boy let out a ragged sigh as his head throbbed with agony, but he kept his gaze focused.

The walls began to dissolve from the point he was focusing on. A transparent haze settled over the walls. Somehow, he knew that this wasn't the reality – yet. But the ruined walls with missing chunks and rotten wood he was looking at were definitely the future.

Shiki quickly blinked his eyes as he spotted a figure moving around on the other side of the wall. The world of patchwork ruin vanished behind his eyelids. He somehow knew he'd cross a line if he gazed upon a living being the same way.

'But I know I can't go there now...' Shiki thought. He turned and raced down the opposite side of the hall.

The boy rubbed at the center of the back of his head. He really hoped he wouldn't have to use his sight so intensely again for today. The paper slippers on his feet glided across the linoleum of the halls. Occasionally he'd open a door and sneak into a room or two when he heard the noisy and heavier footsteps of the adults in the halls.

Shiki grinned as he spotted an exit. Time to go visit Aoko and Elesia for the day.

* * *

><p>"Aoookkkkoooo-saaan~" Shiki drawled out in a happy tone. The boy had his arms stretched out wide for a hug and his eyes half squinted against the light of the sun high above.<p>

A fist greeted his forehead instead.

Shiki instantly reacted to the attack by curling up into himself in a ball. "Ow!" The boy whined as he clutched at his head. "Why are you so meeean?" He imitated his previous singsong tone.

The auburn haired woman looked decidedly unimpressed from where she was staring down at him. "Your head is pretty thick, isn't it?" Aoko murmured, shaking her left hand slightly. Elesia, who had been gazing down at the hillside intently, spared a moment to glance over at the woman and boy.

"You got another person tracking you, Shiki-chan. I'm going to have to give you 60 points today." She glanced over to the hillside, and Shiki could have sworn her blue eyes glowed.

Shiki sprang to his feet and dashed over towards Elesia's side. He gazed downwards at a confused looking burly man in the hospital's uniform.

Shiki held his breath. The man looked directly upwards at them for a few moments. After a few agonizingly long moments, the staff member merely blinked. The hospital staff member shook his head before he turned and headed back to the facility.

Aoko moved up next to Shiki and Elesia and looked down. "You're not very good at being sneaky, Shiki." She bluntly began. Shiki's head dipped down for a few moments. "But I guess you can always practice with our help."

"We're experts in running away from people after our hides." Elesia chirped such an outrageous thing with a faint smile.

Aoko grimaced.

Shiki wasn't quite sure what they meant by that, but he smiled anyway. Both women's attitudes put his own worries aside. "Uhm...if I can't call Aoko-san by her name..." The boy quickly tensed up and let the words fly from his mouth in a jumble. He could already see Aoko winding up for another bop. "Can I call you Sensei, then?" He blurted in one rush.

Elesia laughed with delight as Aoko reacted like she had just been suckerpunched in the gut.

"A-another one?" Aoko whispered to herself. Her skin went pale as she trembled slightly.

Shiki pouted heavily at the negative reaction, but he caught Elesia's wink. The blue haired woman moved behind Shiki and laid her hands on his shoulders before she continued.

"Just keep calling her Sensei. It's super duper effective against her." Elesia held the mirth in her tone in check as she concluded. "In fact, we should sing her the Sensei Song. She's been way too grumpy lately."

"Ooh?" Shiki perked up. He turned his eyes over towards Aoko. The woman held up her hands in a warding gesture. Something deep within the boy demanded he not pass up the opportunity presented to him.

Aoko shook her head, sending her long hair swaying in the summer breeze. "T-that isn't fair!" She blurted as she took a step back.

"Ready?" Elesia breezily ignored the other woman.

"Yes!"

"Well then, follow after me!" The blue haired woman promptly led Shiki into a nonsensical song as both of them began to skip around an increasingly put upon looking Aoko.

But at no point did she tell either of them to stop.

* * *

><p>The afternoon begun well. Shiki hadn't needed to use his weird eyes to sneak his way outside, and Elesia had given him 70 points.<p>

Shiki still wasn't entirely sure what the points meant, but the blue haired woman had promised him that he'd be able to trade them in for a special prize some day. He really hoped he could get something awesome. Or at least be able to use them to be able to call Elesia Sensei someday too. Shiki wasn't really sure if it was right to call an adult 'Senpai'.

The other reason the day was looking bright was because Shiki had finally managed to sneak out a popsicle stick from the hospital. It was just thin enough so he could really show off to both Sensei and Senpai.

Shiki gave both women a bright smile as he released their hands.

"What are we doing here, Shiki?" Aoko wondered. "You usually just want to lie back in the grass." She faintly accused the boy.

Elesia shook her head. "It must be a real important reason Shiki-chan wanted to bring us here." She offered the young child a smile. "Isn't that right?" Elesia encouraged Shiki.

The boy eagerly nodded as he drew out a popsicle stick.

Shiki began to explain himself on seeing the bemusement in both of the women's eyes, "I was thinking about why I was able to find you two." The boy held the popsicle loosely in his hand. Best not let it slide into his palm's lines by mistake. "And I realized why – it's my eyes!" He triumphantly announced with an eager nod.

Both Elesia and Aoko traded a silent look.

"Well...that could be...Shiki, what are you doing?" Aoko words shot up in alarm. Elesia tensed as Shiki turned the popsicle stick on the thin, reedy looking tree he had brought them to, and in one swift motion slashed through one of the tree's central lines.

The tree let out a wobbly creak before tumbling over and crashing loudly to the ground. Leaves crunched, branches snapped, and a loud thump rumbled together in a terrible symphony. Birds loudly started at the sound and rushed away from nearby trees, afraid of having their homes face the same fate while they were in them.

Shiki turned towards the two women with a proud look in his eyes.

"Amazing, isn't it? I can cut anything easily, as long as it is somewhere where I can see the scribbles. No one else can do this, right?"

"Shiki!" Aoko rushed up and loudly smacked Shiki across the cheek.

Shiki let out a gasp of shock as he let his popsicle stick go. The boy's hand rushed up to gently cup his cheek, eyes watering as he glanced at Aoko in betrayal. Shiki glanced over at Elesia, but she had a hint of coldness in her eyes. The blue haired woman closed her eyes and shook her head.

Guilt struck Shiki in his gut.

"I..I just wanted to show you two what I could do..." Shiki had a hitch in his voice. Both women stared at him. No...past him. Shiki turned to face the tree he had cut down, and the terrible sensation mounted as he saw two birds hop around the tree. Their chirps as they inspected the tree sounded mournful to the boy.

He realized that he was beginning to sob.

"...I'm sorry."

"-Shiki."

Shiki felt a gentle, warm feeling envelop him. Aoko had stepped up from behind him. The woman's long limbs tightly embraced the boy as she settled her head down on top of Shiki's head. Moments later, Elesia moved next to Shiki.

"There's no need to apologize." Aoko whispered. "It's true you did something I should be angry at you for, but it's definitely not your fault."

Elesia knelt down so she was level with Shiki. She gently reached forwards and began wiping away the tear running down Shiki's blue eyes. The hint of coldness in her demeanor had vanished as she offered Shiki a sad smile.

"We have to tell you now, though. Before you make a mistake you'll never be able to take back." Elesia's words caused Aoko to tighten her hold on Shiki. By this point, the two birds that had been hopping around the tree had turned towards the humans, offered a chirp, and had flown off. "Please don't hate Aoko...you can hate me. She has to be cruel because I've done terrible things before."

Shiki slowly shook his head. The guilt from before was being replaced by disbelief. "I can't hate either of you! Sensei and Senpai would never cause me to hate them." He mumbled in shock. Shiki's chin dipped a bit towards his chest as he flushed.

"Now then...tell me about those scribbles." Aoko prompted.

Shiki then began to tell both women about the jagged black lines that he could only see. By the time he had concluded, Elesia looked pale and Aoko's embrace had tightened.

"What you're seeing...is something that should never be seen by anyone or anything. Everything in existence has points where they are most easily broken." Aoko solemnly began.

Shiki's confusion was profound, and the boy merely blankly looked up at the auburn haired woman. Elesia, noticing how confused the boy was, offered him a wan smile.

"Your eyes can see the future, Shiki-chan."

Shiki remembered how he had seen the walls in the hospital rot before his intense gaze. Allowing him to look past them briefly to look at the patrolling staff. "Like how the wall was and wasn't destroyed?" He wondered.

"Yes...those are the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception."

Aoko gave Elesia a sharp glance, but the blue haired woman remained stoic in the face of the woman's silent rebuke. She turned to draw Shiki's attention back to her. "You don't need to know more than that. The principles will become clear to you as they become needed someday."

"I...don't really understand, Sensei." Shiki's naivety made both women's hearts ache.

'Is this why we ran across you, Shiki?' Aoko thought to herself sadly. 'Is it my turn now to mentor someone with those cursed eyes?'

"Shiki-chan..." Elesia took both of the boy's hands in hers. A fearful, zealous light entered the blue haired woman's eyes. "You have to make me a promise, okay?" She squeezed his hands. "Promise me that you'll never cut those lines on a whim or as a joke. Power like the kind we have...it can make us lose our sense of connection with the world. We'd start taking other's lives too lightly." Elesia thickly whispered to the boy. "So please...promise me that you'll take care not to abuse your power, alright?"

"Y-yes, Senpai." Shiki trembled slightly. His words seemed to bring Elesia back to herself as she blinked. She shook her head as she sadly moved away. An indecipherable look was on Elesia's face as she stared at Shiki.

Aoko gently ran a hand through Shiki's hair as she moved away. "Good...don't ever forget what you felt here today, Shiki. I'm sure that if you stay as sincere and kind, you'll find happiness." Her statement caused Shiki to finally respond.

"But Sensei...I'm worried. I've already had my nails sink into things just on accident. Plus more lines appear if I focus too hard. Wouldn't my surroundings come undone around me if I make a mistake?"

In response, the auburn haired woman lifted a finger up and wagged it at him tauntingly. "I'll be able to help you with that, though." Aoko chimed with a tiny grin. "Shiki, I'll give you a very special present tomorrow. I'll give you your old life back, the one you had before your accident."

* * *

><p>It was one week to the day from meeting Sensei and Senpai.<p>

Aoko and Elesia arrived on the grassy hill. Each of them was carrying one suitcase in one hand. Elesia was no longer wearing her own glasses. Her large, round eyes were a few shades lighter than Shiki's own.

Aoko held onto a rounded set of glasses in her other hand. Both women offered Shiki warm smiles, and the auburn haired woman stepped forward to offer Shiki the glasses. The boy carefully trotted up to Aoko and gently took the glasses from her hands.

"Here. Put these on and those scribbles won't be visible anymore."

Shiki glanced at the glasses in his hands in wonder. A stray thought crossed his mind, though.

"But I don't need glasses."

Elesia chuckled. "Neither do I." She smirked at Shiki and gave him a wink. "The Mystic Eye Killers don't have magnification. They'll just help you control your special abilities." Elesia held up her free hand and puts it over her forehead like a visor. "On and off, see?" She lowered her palm over her eyes and then back up with a tiny grin.

"Oooh..." Shiki nodded. He could already see that the lines weren't appearing within the circle of the glasses, and quickly donned them. The boy let out a whooping cheer as all the lines on the top of the hill completely vanished, including the ones that had surrounded both women. "You did it, Sensei! The lines are completely gone – it's just like magic made them go away!" He shrieked joyously as he wrapped his arms around Aoko.

Both of them nearly went down in a sprawl due to Shiki's overabundant energy.

The woman let out a sheepish laugh as she flushed a bit. "W-well, of course. I **am** a sorceress, after all." Aoko thrust her chest out proudly.

Elesia smirked faintly, causing the auburn haired woman to give her a pout. Aoko let out a tiny sigh as she set down her suitcase. "Like Elesia said, though." Aoko gently pried Shiki off her. "The lines aren't really gone. I just kept them hidden. Once you take the glasses off, you'll be able to see them again."

Shiki glumly nodded.

"Yes. That's the one thing that cannot be fixed. Your only choice is to keep living your life and do your best with the eyes you have now." Aoko continued.

"...No. I don't want these scary eyes. If I cut those lines again, I'll end up breaking my promise to Elesia." Shiki glanced away, feeling rebellious.

"Oh, you mean never cutting the lines again?" Aoko snorted. "Silly, you can break that promise whenever you like."

"...Really? But both of you said it was something I shouldn't do."

Elesia glanced away. She looked a bit shamefaced. "Shiki...I would like for you to not abuse your power, but it's ultimately not my decision, is it?" The woman mumbled. Shiki looked over at her. "Your eyes are a gift...a terribly unique one."

Aoko gave Elesia an encouraging nod before catching Shiki's attention. "No one has any right to judge you for using your gift." She offered him an understanding smile. "There's always meaning behind the powers God has granted us."

"There will be a day when you'll need them." Elesia glanced at Shiki with tears in her eyes. "Don't turn away from them...if only for your own safety."

Aoko squatted down so she was level with Shiki's face. "Live true to yourself. Become a man in the manner you think is right." She whispered to the boy before setting her hands on his shoulders and gently squeezing Shiki. "I know that in ten years, you'll become a great man." Aoko announced with all the confidence in the world.

With that said, Aoko stood up and picked up her suitcase. She gave a glance over at Elesia. Her expression turned thoughtful.

"A word of advice, though. Special powers attract other special powers. Make sure you weigh your choices carefully before using your eyes." Aoko nodded and began to walk towards Elesia. Shiki's heart began to rapidly beat.

"Wait!" Shiki blurted, feeling something was wrong with this parting. He jogged towards the two women. "I...I can't do it alone. I was about to break down all by myself. I was so...afraid. I could only become normal because I had you two with me!"

"Don't say such things, Shiki-chan." Elesia's blue eyes flashed with displeasure.

"It's not good to tell lies you yourself don't even believe, Shiki." Aoko glanced over her shoulder at the boy with a neutral look. "It'll make whoever hears you sad."

"Only you can choose who you'll be, Shiki-chan." Elesia firmly continued. "No one else can do it for you."

"This is goodbye, Shiki. Listen...life isn't easy; it's a long, hard, rocky road, filled with many pitfalls." Aoko smirked. "You have more power than most do to get through it, though. So pull yourself together."

Shiki firmed his stance. His eyes, now a dull shade of gray behind his glasses, stopped shimmering as he furiously rubbed at his nose. "Then...goodbye, Sensei." Shiki bravely attempted to keep a firm tone in his voice.

"That's right...that confidence will get you far." Aoko grinned. Elesia nodded approvingly at Shiki. "A solution will always present itself if you have the heart and will to see it through to the end." The auburn haired woman laughed happily.

"Oh god, don't start on that." Elesia mumbled. She sniffed as she wiped away a few tears of her own.

"Hee. I like it, though." Aoko singsonged as she rested her suitcase lightly against her upper back. She began to walk away with a hint of swagger to her.

Elesia offered Shiki one last intense look. "Goodbye, Shiki-chan. Live a happy life." Her grip on her own suitcase was tight, making her knuckles pop out of her fists.

"Goodbye, Senpai." Shiki trembled. Yet his voice didn't fail him.

"Ah...100 points for you today, Shiki-chan." Elesia quickly swept in and lightly pecked Shiki on the forehead. She quickly swept away and rushed away after Aoko, glancing back at Shiki once in a while as both women vanished in the distance.

Wind rushed across the grassy hills.

Only a dark haired boy remained standing on the hill.

"Thank you."

* * *

><p>It was only seven days, but they taught nine year old Shiki Nanaya something more valuable than anything else.<p>

All that remained were many words and mysterious glasses.

Shiki felt that they would never see each other again, but the will to live was renewed. From the hospital, he was sent to live with a side branch of the family, but it was alright. Shiki would just create new ties with a new family.

Was this what it meant to be more adult?

* * *

><p>Shiki Tohno sighed. He dismissively flicked some stray blood off his hands. A thick coating flew off the claw like nails extending from his right hand onto the wall of the servant chambers. Several people stood around in a heavy daze. Many looked to be moving to attack or leap, but they had all fallen once exposed to his Mystic Eyes of Whisper.<p>

Even his beloved sister and the demon hunter boy they had kept as a pet had been so easy to fool.

"Well, I guess there's no point to worry about you now." Shiki mused. The quivering girl beneath him was in no position to respond – both from being charmed by his hypnosis and as she was bleeding out. "Please learn to not speak ill of your betters in the future." The boy pondered things for a few moments, but decided to let it go. The person he had used to be seemed to have some manner of attachment to this one.

With one final gaze across the room, Shiki implanted the mental images of a pack of wolves attacking the red haired girl. He idly ran one of his shoes along the puddles of blood along the ground into the proper patterns as he started walking away, reforming his hands into a more human shape. Once he was safely away from the servant's quarters in the backyard, he released his hold over the group's mind and idly summoned forth a pair of wolves from hundreds of miles away.

The screams and shouts of anger behind him made the boy faintly smile.

'There, those two wolves will be taken down and I get some practice summoning. I wonder if they'll get her some treatment in time?'

His own perfectionism caused him distress in equal amounts.

'I'm going to have to train this body up to par.' Shiki thought with a small measure of annoyance. 'Oh well, I have a perfectly handy demon hunter on hand, I suppose.' He thought happily.

Shiki's stomach rumbled. "Oh dear. I hope they heat up some leftovers." He quickly scurried off.

Magecraft was such taxing work.

* * *

><p><em>Wise up!<em>

Mystic Eyes of Death Perception

[Cast Your Gaze Into The Void]

Owner: Shiki Nanaya and sssssschkt!

Type: Support

Rank: n/a

The ability to sort of... project the final destiny of everything...onto whatever you look upon.

What a swell power.

The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are actually a set of magic circuits within the eyes of the user. You can make them stronger with practice, but do you really want to improve the ability to bring down doom upon everything so easily?

On top of that ethical question, you have to consider where the magic circuits are located. While it's a bummer to blow out a circuit in your arm or leg, it's fatal if you do the same for the magic circuits behind the eyes.

There was a pretty terrible practice amongst Mystic Eye users of a long extinct clan of Demon Hunters of trying to brute force magic circuits on, but it was said that all it did was shorten the life span of the users. You don't mess with things near the veins on the brain, full stop.

At Shiki Nanaya's current level, he can easily predict and project the death of living things. The lines of death manifest across the surfaces of various creatures. He can see the lines on non-living objects like walls and doors, but he has much more difficulty doing so.

But I guess anyone would, right? How the heck does a door or wall have a 'death', anyway?

...

Is he really going to be okay...?


	3. Chapter 3

Tsukihime is the property of Type-Moon. Melty Blood is the property of Type-Moon and French-Bread. Melty Blood Act Cadenza is the property of Type-Moon and Ecole Software. All additional references and parodies belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 2: First Struggle

Shiki Nanaya let out a yawn of exhaustion. Dawn was still about an hour away, and only the bitter cold and heavy silence surrounded him. This was the third night he had been wandering around the school in particular. Rumors of a bakeneko, or monster cat, had been circulating around his channels, and Shiki wanted to nip things in the bud now before it became too much of a hassle.

'The last thing I want is for it to become a nekomata. No one will know what hit them if the monster starts disguising itself as any human it wants.'

The teenager was crouched near the gymnasium. He tightly clung onto the walls as he allowed the building to shield him from the winter winds. The boy was still wearing the deep blue pants and coat that were his school's uniform. Mainly out of laziness, but the dark colors did help him blend into the night to a degree.

Shiki crept around the corner he had been lurking near. The wind tried to seep through Shiki's coat once he was out in the open, but he ignored it. He wondered how long he had been staking the school at this point.

A pebble loudly crunched.

Shiki's mind went into overtime. His senses began to sharpen as he tried to take a whiff. Fortunately he wasn't downwind of the target, but he wasn't exactly a tracker. Shiki waited a little while longer before slinking over in the direction he had originally been heading towards from the opposite side of the gymnasium.

Nanaya winced as his inner thigh twinged with pain. Shiki's silent game of cat and mouse with his target had been going on way too long. It was nearly to the point that he'd want to start putting on a parka to keep going.

'I can't let it get away, though.' The last thing he needed was his city being filled with damn voracious alley cats from hell.

Shiki's body went ramrod straight as disaster struck as he approached the end of the other side of the gym. The toe of his shoe had lightly grazed along the gravel set up around the building in the wrong way. The rock had caused a chain reaction of shifting earth and now he had caused a loud enough commotion to rival the one his target had made.

A cat's warbling cry went up in the night.

The clouds overhead shifted just enough to cast a long shadow of a massive four legged beast. It had shaggy hair and a thin tail that was twice as long as the length of the beast's body. The tail of the cat was relatively thin and fragile looking, though.

Shiki heard the sounds of two small flames igniting in the silence. Their light caused the cat's shadow to ripple.

Oh crap. It wasn't just a bakeneko, it was a genuine Nekomata.

'Move!' Nanaya's instinct yelled as the lean boy skipped backwards from the edge of the building. The watermelon sized head of the bakeneko slid through the stone of the gymnasium like a wall of water. However, its forward momentum terminated. It appeared only the head and neck of the beast had managed to phase past the stone.

For a moment, Shiki spotted an advantage and dove forwards. His hands swiftly took off his glasses and drew his knife from within his coat. Nanaya's irises flared an unearthly blue as the lines of death erupted before him.

The knife swung at the demonic cat. Oddly enough, for a moment it appeared that the tomoe design on the hilt spun.

The nekomata's gleaming ivory teeth, needle like in shape and the size of three of Shiki's fingers put together, slammed together. The demon hunter only had a few moments to react as a wave of force erupted in every direction from the nekomata's head. Chunks of the building around it, especially the corner it was partially phased into, vanished as they were apparently...eaten.

Or at least the vague tooth like marks on the remaining stone made it look like they had been bitten. Shiki barely managed to weather the storm by slamming his knees onto a line along the ground. The points of his limbs were sharp enough to deep down into the dark line enough to sent up a shower of shrapnel in a wave.

The wave of annihilation slowed long enough with the new material in the air that Shiki was able to dive onto his back. A few stray hairs dropping over his forehead vanished completely. The very tip of his nose felt paradoxically cold and warm at the same time from the wave, though.

The nekomata hissed and dove towards Shiki. Ten claws, which at one point were ivory – but now looked more pinkish with brownish red splotches, extended out of the paws of the monster. The tawny, white and golden-brown cat bounded straight at Shiki, but the boy was ready.

Nanaya tightly gripped three loose stones in his fist. Shiki let the three pebbles fly straight towards the pouncing cat. The creature let out a mournful wail as it realized that it was caught in mid-air and the distance was too narrow.

The tail of the beast lashed out. The limp looking limb snapped out like a snake, flopping into two tails as it unleashed a trio of small, silverish blue fireballs. One of them successfully smashed the stone heading to the nekomata's head, but the other two went wide.

The cat let out a pained snarl as the second stone sank deep into its right shoulder. Blood erupted from the limb as the nekomata form popped like a baloon, releasing pink smoke in every direction. The third stone, having both dodged the fireball aimed at it and missed the demon cat, harmlessly passed through the cloud.

A much smaller cat, now a mundane size, erupted out of the cloud cover. Shiki staggered to his feet as the cat began to dash away. Blood matted the fur around the creature's shoulder as the human raced after it, leaving behind the gymnasium, which showed several more large bite marks along the back of the wall.

The moonlight beat down on the two as they raced across the track field next to the building. Stray pieces of grass were kicked up by the human's shoes. The blades were caught in the wind and sent fluttering away as Shiki twisted his grip on his knife, readying himself to throw it at the cat that was bouncing just slightly ahead of him.

Shiki focused, working past his own heavy breathing, as his perception of the world began to narrow down to the creature furiously racing ahead of him.

The nekomata spared a glance back at him, and noticed that Shiki was readying himself for a toss. It hatefully snarled at him, and flung a more concentrated ghostly flame at the demon hunter using its noodle-like tails. The two tail tips wildly whipped about, leaving flames in their wake as a fireball three times the size of Shiki fist went screaming towards the teenager.

A spike of pain rushed through his head. The black lines of his vision attempted to swirl around the ethereal flame, but were kept at bay. Shiki's shifted his footing as he gave up his forwards charge to dodge to the side.

Both the nekomata and the teenager hissed for their own reasons as the fireball passed uncomfortably close, but ultimately wound up missing the target.

It did succeed in giving the nekomata more room to move. Even with its shoulder damaged, it reached the edge of the track field a good thirty seconds before Shiki. It hedged its bets by wildly flicking its tails behind it, sending smaller fireballs – each half the size of the boy's fists – wildly bouncing around.

Shiki was able to see the lines on these fireballs, but his head punished him for it by giving him a sharp, migraine level burst of pain every time he focused on them. To keep his own rapid pace steady, the demon hunter did his best to ignore them as he rushed after the cat, only cutting through the ones in his way and rushing around the other ones.

Both of them reached the wall of the school almost simultaneously.

The nekomata squared its body as it went into a ramming position. Its jaws opened up hungrily as the cat rushed towards the wall at full tilt. Shiki, remembering what the cat had done – and predicted what it was going to do again, turned his eyes towards the wall.

Several lines crisscrossed the chalk gray obstacle. Each thrummed with the absolute destruction of the barrrier before him, but Shiki was looking for the thinnest of the lines. There, towards the bottom of the wall was a positively anemic looking line. It bulged strangely around the middle, but that was fine with him.

The thin, anemic line was easier to target this way.

"You're not getting away!" Shiki shouted as he tensed and let his knife fly. The steel gleamed like a silver missile as it flashed past the cat and slid into the wall. It was hilt deep moments before the cat arrived.

The wall gave a shudder. A good five feet of the wall vanished in an explosion of force.

The cat let out a wail of anger as it was belted about the face and body by rapidly moving pieces of cement. A meaty smack in particular sent it crashing to the ground. The nekomata let out a dazed cry as it tried to get to its feet, but a dark shadow towered over the cat's small body. A sense of overpowering destruction overtook the monster as it looked up into Shiki's glowing blue eyes.

The human was wielding a capped pen in the same manner he had been holding his knife.

"So long."

"Roa sent his greetings." The nekomata snarled out as the weapon descended. It would have its own petty sense of vengenance granted before it was annihilated.

The demon hunter's weapon flashed along the four major lines he could see on the cat's body. Flesh and bone easily parted before his strike, aided by his Mystic Eyes, as he dissected the nekomata in three strikes. The last one, severing the tail, would ensure the cat wouldn't try anything funny.

Not that any youkai had ever returned from his strikes, but just in case.

'Another of Roa's minions...' The name bounced around in Shiki's head, drudging up ill feelings as he pulled his now bloody writing impliment away from the cooling body of the nekomata. Several memories flicked through his mind's eye of fighting various youkai over the recent years.

He pushed the thought away for now.

"Well, that's another pen ruined." Shiki sighed, adjusting his glasses over his now gray eyes. The weight of his sheathed knife bounced in his coat pocket as he leveraged himself through the hole in the school wall. He casually tossed the bloody writing impliment in the nearby garbage can on the streets beyond the school.

The body of the nekomata, evenly carved up into four chunks behind him, was slowly dissolving.

"Is that a case of the pen being mightier than the sword?" Shiki's slow, casual retreat in the direction of his home with the Arima family was halted in its tracks. The eager female's voice rang up from behind him again. "Too soon?" She asked with a chirp of happiness.

"...Kohaku." Shiki calmly turned towards the kimono clad maid. Like always, the redhead merely grinned in response. She was dressed in a dark blue kimono that highlighted her deathly pale skin. Kohaku practically glowed in the moonlight.

Shiki was reminded of his knife all of a sudden as he looked at Kohaku. Both of them glowed equally brilliantly under the moonlight, and rivaled each other in their sharpness.

"Hello, Shiki-kun." Kohaku's amber eyes glowed with spiritual power. "Have you been a naughty boy tonight?"

Shiki's feet slid a bit as he moved a step back under the pressure. The girl's eyes sharpened, and her smile widened as she glanced over at the ruined wall. She clasped her hands before her as she observed the nekomata lying in a ruined heap.

"Ooh...you're forgiven." The pressure dialed down, letting Shiki breathe again as the maid delicately stepped through the hole in the wall. He slowly trailed behind her, aware of how she could curse him, but remembering that she was his ally.

Maybe.

The maid squatted down next to the nekomata. "You were such a naughty cat." She chided the dead body with a motherly tone.

"You shouldn't speak to it like that." Shiki chided. "Akiha might take offense."

"Mmm...why blame the entire species for the crimes of one?" She lightly held the nekomata's severed head and inspected it from side to side. Kohaku ignored the dripped blood and gore - her studious gaze was reserved for the blank eyed creature.

"A demon like that one almost brought ruin to the whole family..."

Kohaku grew startled as the creature's glossy gray eyes, which had been staring upwards at the skies, suddenly swiveled to face her. A spark of life briefly manifested as she felt the head draw odic energy from her through their bond. The creature gazed at her accusingly.

The maid snarled and lightly pitched it away with disgust.

"...what's wrong?" Shiki's eyes narrowed in confusion. His eyes followed the head of the nekomata as it rolled out towards the grassy fields they used for soccer. Kohaku shook her head angrily, but her fists grabbed the severed tail.

"Nothing. But its tail will be useful for me." The maid's temper cooled down as she rose. "Thank you, Shiki-kun." She huskily intoned towards the demon hunter. He merely uncomfortably tried to shrug off her tone before it got to him.

"I did it because there were too many 'missing' bodies around." Shiki really wasn't sure if it was cool to flirt with Kohaku. Especially considering the situation.

"Heh...why don't you come back home?" Kohaku asked. "Shiki-chan and Akiha-sama miss you."

'Why are you wandering around so late at night?' Shiki thought to respond. Then again, there were few things that could match that pressure.

"I'm already home." He curtly replied.

"...Hisui-chan wants to see you again." She quietly responded.

"Ah." Shiki scratched at his nose.

Kohaku merely nodded. She turned and began retreating through the hole that Shiki had created in the wall. "Well, I'll let the others know you took down another of these vile creatures. Expect your school to be closed tomorrow while the family takes care of things."

Shiki awkwardly reached towards Kohaku's retreating back. "H-hey..." He nervously licked at his lips.

"Makihisa-sama has been dead for years." Kohaku's announcement struck Shiki dumb. "There's nothing keeping you from coming now."

She briefly remembered the thing wearing her face so long ago, playing her role, and following the Tohno Patriarch into his study. She remembered coming upon his dismembered corpse as gleaming teeth and shining claws tore into it visciously. Pleasure surged through her. Her hands almost lovingly petted the long tail, but she remembered the accusing stare. Kohaku stilled her petting motions.

"Then why the damn airs?" Shiki's gray eyes narrowed.

"That was because..." _There was still living opposition_. "Akiha-sama hadn't finished training. Her blood may have set you off."

Shiki reluctantly nodded. That had been one of the things he privately worried about as well.

"You're still welcome to come back home whenever you want." Kohaku glanced past her shoulder at Shiki. Her amber eyes were warm. "Back to Hisui-chan and everyone else." Her voice sounded incredibly tempting at the moment.

"...you know that I have to talk to Miyako first." Shiki barely resisted.

Kohaku silently nodded. "...well, I hope to see you again, then." With that, she was gone.

Shiki headed back home.

* * *

><p>Shiki had a faint smile on his lips as he casually strolled down the lit streets. Now that he was actually moving around, the morning air felt refreshingly clean. The energy of the dawning rays filled him as he felt satisfaction from a job well done.<p>

Only two things were troubling him at the moment. One was a low end headache that had been going on ever since the sun had risen in earnest. It was causing him nothing but stress at the moment, but he was managing it through his walk.

The other was the remains of the nekomata.

'Kohaku will take care of the details.'

He would even get a chance to sleep in a bit after the rough night. It was good having siblings that watched out for him.

Shiki felt relaxed enough that he decided he'd take a detour through the park. Immediately, he felt himself surrounded with excess amounts of mana as he stepped into the park. The plant life and animals in this section of the town were more energetic thanks to all the energy. Even his own eyes, worn through his earlier actions, felt a bit better thanks to the energy.

Several hazy figures darted in the edges of his vision, but none of them moved to attack. In fact, one of them even moved towards Shiki.

His demon hunter blood began to boil beneath the surface of his skin, but Shiki took a deep breath and mastered himself. The figure froze in place, but tentatively raised a hand upwards once the killer instinct that Shiki had been feeling vanished.

"Nanaya-sama...?" The haze drew away from the figure to reveal a young girl in a school uniform. It looked like one of the more expensive schools, at that. The symbol on the breast pocket leapt out at him.

'Maybe Asagami High...?' Shiki thought, remembering Akiha's school. The dark haired girl patiently waited for Shiki's response. Outside of his arm's reach, amusingly enough. The demon hunter slowly nodded, and the girl faintly smiled in return.

"What are you doing out here so early?" Shiki asked the girl. He could feel her warped nature, but she hadn't tried to attack. "Or...uhm...late."

The youkai girl laughed. "That's fine, Nanaya-sama. I don't really need to sleep that much now." Her delicate features smoothed out. "I took on my full human form to talk to you. One of my friends got attacked a while ago, and I needed your help."

One of the blurry figures that were staying away from Shiki shouted something over. It was garbled to Shiki's ears, though. He turned a curious look over towards the schoolgirl.

"They thank you for taking care of that menace as well..." The girl explained. With a start she realized something. "Oh, I'm sorry! My name is Orime." She bowed.

Curiosity fully engaged now, Shiki briefly lifted his glasses. His enhanced vision revealed a large mass growing out of the back of her skull. In addition to that, he could now see that her blue eyes were actually a dull red.

'A futakuchi?' Shiki could see the long strands of Orime's dark hair moving about behind her back like feeders.

"Pleasure is all mine." Shiki sincerely replied with a bow. "How can I help?" He asked as he tucked his glasses away. Better if he had them off for whatever was going to happen next.

The second mouth, puckered and prominent on the back of the school girl's skull, curled up in a lazy grin. "I like him..." The second voice sounded boisterous compared to Orime's refined tone. "Why don't we go out on a stroll?"

Orime went bright red. "S-shut up!" She huffed, causing the mouth on the back of her skull to break out in giggles. She turned traumatized eyes on Shiki, who looked faintly intrigued, and her red blush dialed down to a delicate pink. "A-anyway, the youkai said they wanted to warn you..." She took a breath to collect herself. Her tone firmed up as she nodded. "A strange rock breached the boundary around the park. None of the others have gone near it, but it's projecting a really vile aura."

Shiki's blue eyes sharpened.

"Lead the way."

Orime quickly turned. A cluster of her hair gestured for Shiki to follow as the two went deeper into the park.

Once the two walked past a thin looking orange filter, reality around Shiki began to give way to a twisted mass of bizarre looking flora that didn't belong on earth anymore. In the fading shadows drawn from the trees, strangely shaped creatures stared out at Shiki with worry in their hearts, and would relax only once he had moved away from them.

"It's crazy, isn't it?" Orime spoke up. Shiki glanced over at her. The girl was looking at him from the side of her vision. "Four years ago I was just a normal girl..."

"Don't act like this a burden." The lips on the back of her head chided. "You were always puking up your food and you were miserable until I appeared. You should thank every day that the Tohnos did what they did to change the city."

Orime grimaced and remained silent.

"Nanaya-sama?" Orime's second voice prodded for Shiki's attention.

"What is it?"

"I wanted to thank you for removing that beast tonight. Even if the others show more worry, they wanted to say that too."

"...well, it's just how it goes." Shiki awkwardly replied. "It wouldn't stop unless it was removed."

"Hee...that's cute. But I sort of like that side of Nanaya-sama as well~"

"Focus!" Orime barked out, causing Shiki to flinch at her self-rebuke. The second mouth on the back of her head closed.

"There isn't a reason for that..." Shiki started, but Orime shook her head.

"I know. It's just that there's times and places for things." Orime gave Shiki a shy glance. "Uhm...not that what 'I' just said was a lie. Any of it."

The demon hunter sweated.

"Ah, here we are." The dark haired girl drew to a halt. She pointed up at a cherry blossom tree. Against all rational thought, it was in full bloom in this dead winter morning, but Shiki sort of expected such strangeness from this pack of youkai.

A jet black stone had smashed into the creamy brown trunk of the tree. Even from here they could see that the wood around the impact point was dark and rotten looking.

"It looks like a meteor."

"It crashed about a half hour ago..." Orime explained. "It's been hurting my friend here, but it shouldn't hurt you."

Shiki glanced over at Orime, who looked earnest. "I don't think I can climb it, though." He drawled as he glanced up at the tree. Shiki was pretty sure that climbing up a youkai might wind up setting off his instincts in an irreversible way.

Orime drooped miserably.

"But we can try and force the stone out?"

"Please! Anything to stop her from feeling anymore pain!"

"Alright, uhm...how much of the wood around that location is dead?" Shiki wondered. He couldn't see any lines at all on the dark wood, but could see it around the wood. "If it's not going too quickly, we can go get some tools."

"Well, it's about a foot in at this point." Orime revealed.

"Alright, then. Let's go get ourselves a ladder and shovel. We'll cut the dead wood and that stone out to prevent it from spreading..." Shiki affirmatively nodded.

A deep pulse surged within both Orime and Shiki. Both of them choked and collapsed to their knees in the orange and white tipped grass of the youkai's park. The dark stone surged with a hateful aura.

"I don't think so."A sneering, male voice boomed out from within the stone. Lines of death crisscrossed the object as a vile curse blasted outwards from within its dark surface to try and spear the two of them.

The demon hunter was glad that Orime had kept her human form after speaking with him. It was only that which allowed him to wrap his arms around Orime. Shiki pulled both out of range with a powerful leap.

The two inky lances stabbed into the ground, sending up small clouds of dust before drawing back. The barbed weapons moved about in the air like serpents, coiled and dripping raw mana from their edges like poison.

"What the hell are you doing to my friend?" Orime demanded. "She didn't do anything to hurt you!"

"That's true." The voice within the stone replied, surprising both Shiki and Orime. "I just barely woke up." One of the two lances moved back towards the stone. It began to push up against the dead wood. "I'll remove myself now."

Shiki awkwardly released his grip on Orime's hip once the second lance drew closer to the stone in a protective manner.

Orime looked stunned.

"Tell her I sincerely apologize." The stone popped out of the wood. Instantly, the two tendrils split in half as it caught itself over the grass on shadowy limbs. Unlike before, the grass beneath it didn't die like the wood had. It began to sway away from the two.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Shiki spoke up as he moved towards the oddest youkai he had ever seen before.

"...what's it to you?" A suspicious tone entered his voice, causing Shiki to draw back in surprise. He didn't even know that rocks could feel wary of others.

"I...well..."

"I'm going to rest. Stay out of my way, **human**." He hissed. A hint of vast amounts of power surged to life within the depths of the stone. Both Shiki and Orime grimaced at the sensations of being cursed a hundred times flickered through their minds.

The stone began to lumber away into the depths of the alien world the youkai had created within their field.

"...the hell?" Shiki wondered. Orime looked similarly confused.

* * *

><p>The presence within the stone, once a mighty god, silently gazed at the human's interaction with the two youkai. The tiny piece of himself that he had left in the earth after his intial attack reported everything to him. Several times he could feel the bred in hatred of the nonhuman within the boy, but he didn't do anything about it.<p>

'Curious...' He thought in surprise as the tattered remains of his abilities showed that this boy, Shiki Nanaya, was a demon hunter. Yet the calm and kind way he was treating the youkai girl as both moved to dig out the deadened wood from the youkai tree was genuine.

How paradoxical...

'_That's how humans are, though_**.**' A new voice taunted him from the back of his own mind. '_We're never very consistent_.'

'You damn usurper...!'

'_Now now, don't be like that Assassin. I just came here to talk._' Both turned to look at Shiki, who was carelessly laughing as both he and the youkai girl started moving away. Their arms were loaded with the rotten wood. The tools had been left behind for another trip, probably. 'I sent you here for a reason.'

'Him?' The newly named Assassin wondered. 'So if I kill him I'll go back...?'

'_Hardly. Unlike the other pieces that escaped, you're all mine. Do that and you're gone._' The voice paused. The idea he was about to propose sounded as outrageous as possible, but it was the only thing he could think up. '_Let's play a game._'

"A game...?' Assassin snarled.

'_It is a portion of an eldritch horror hell bent on destroying mankind. He is from an annihilated lineage of demon hunters seeking justice. They fight crime!_' He paused. '_If he winds up seeing your way of things, maybe the human race really does deserve to be doomed..._'

"He looks like a suitable Assassin to me." Assassin idly mused as the darkness began to wrap itself around its stone shell. The shadow based body began to bulge and warp as it took on a distinct human shape. Color, primarily blues and purples, flooded the darkness as a kimono, hakama pants, and vest appeared on the former god's body. "I, of course, need to test him..."

'_Hm...is that so?_'

"Let's see if he's good enough to take on the fraction of a god." Assassin simply replied. He ran a hand through his long blue hair, pulled high into a ponytail, as he narrowed his blue eyes in the direction that Shiki Nanaya had vanished.

'_You're such a bully towards humans, Assassin. I hope you don't mind I try to even things out?'_

"...hmph. Like I care, Urobuchi." Assassin's form vanished from sight.

* * *

><p>Shiki glanced away from where he had been talking with Orime. Both of them were returning from dumping off the dead, and most importantly – harmless, wood from the youkai tree when he felt a brush alongside his sixth sense.<p>

His gray eyes narrowed.

'_Flowing power of the world, embrace him!_'

A blur rushed towards him from the shadows cast by the youkai flora. He shoved Orime away from him as something within him guided his hand as he unsheathed his knife. Mana, guided by an outer will, surged around the blade as it was reinforced with incredible power.

'_Appear before us!_'

From beneath Shiki Nanaya's glasses, his gray eyes gained a hint of blue...

'_And destroy!"_

* * *

><p><em>Wise Up!<em>

Class – Assassin (Fake)

Master – Angra Mainyu

True Name – Sasaki Kojiro (assumed)

Sex – Male

Height/Weight – 176 cm/63 kg

Alignment – Neutral Evil

Strength: C

Mana: E

Endurance: E

N. Phantasm: Unknown

Agility: A+

Luck: A

Class Skills:

Presence Concealment: D

Personal Skills:

Vitrification: B+

Knowledge of Respect and Harmony: B

Eye of the Mind (Fake): A

Noble Phantasm:

Tsubame Gaeshi

[Concealed Sword: Swallow]

Owner: Assassin

Type: Anti-Unit

Range: Three meters

Rank: N/A

Maximum number of targets: One person

Have you ever wanted to bully an animal? At some point in all of our lives, I think everyone has felt the urge. While some people have given in to that irrational voice in the back of their heads, Assassin decided to embrace the twisted impulse with all of his heart.

Thus giving birth to this technique.

It began with a thought – _How can I cut down a swallow in mid-flight?_ - and ended with him mastering a technique that allows him to strike three times simultaneously. You heard right. Not nearly simultaneously, no.

All at the same time.

It uses the principal of Multi-Dimensional Refraction Phenomenon. Something that belongs to Zelretch's Second Magic. Yes, this samurai – a non-magic user- somehow learned how to bend space and time with nothing but dogged skill and repetitious actions. Nothing less would let him cut down a swallow, which uses its senses to let the air currents help it avoid even the fastest swings.

This is so beyond the impossible it's not even funny.

But...you have to wonder about the world sometimes, huh?

This is a god-like skill where three concurrent arching blades close on the enemy from all sides to create a prison, allowing no chance for defense or evasion. It is an extremely important technique to Assassin, who never takes up a stance, which can be seen by observing how he lifts his sword and swiftly launches the technique.

DON'T ALLOW HIM TO USE THIS SKILL.

Assassin, as the false existence of something even more nebulous, is only able to exist in this boundary field. This has caused his abilities to have been reduced in scale. Due in part to the smaller amount of mana within the boundary field, it should be theoretically possible to win...

Sorry for dragging you into this...


	4. Chapter 4

Tsukihime is the property of Type-Moon. Melty Blood is the property of Type-Moon and French-Bread. Melty Blood Act Cadenza is the property of Type-Moon and Ecole Software. All additional references and parodies belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 3: Unexpected Encounter

The attack came faster than Orime or Shiki had expected. All the demon hunter could do was throw his weight. The force of the shove was enough to push Orime out of harm's way. It wasn't enough to save Shiki, though.

As Orime went crashing to the grass – her youkai eyes could only make out a flash of blue and purple. The attack came with enough force to send Shiki flying five feet away from their attacker.

The scent of blood faintly filled the air. Orime's nose twitched and her eyes widened as she glanced in the direction the new smell was coming from.

Their attacker, a tall man in a pair of hakama pants and a gi in shades of blue and purple, casually stood at attention. The older man looked like he had stepped out of the pages of an old samurai epic. The incredible display of speed and the tangible sense of danger radiating from the samurai froze Orime still.

'Something is wrong about this person.' Orime's youkai senses immediately screamed for her attention. Even as he casually moved towards Shiki, she could feel something more otherworldly than even this land within the samurai. Orime nearly drew her own blood as she bit down on her lips with great force. The samurai's sword, a three foot long katana, gleamed in the morning sun with a fresh coat of blood on it.

"Get up, Shiki!" Orime begged.

Shiki let out a groan, shakily attempting to get to his feet. Orime was able to make out the faint flash of his eyeglasses three feet off to their attacker's right side. They had seemingly been blown off Shiki's face with the initial blow.

Shiki attempted to crawl to his feet, but the older man's first attack merely caused the demon hunter to give up on that notion. He groaned and curled his body up in a ball. The scent of blood grew stronger in the clearing.

"That ended too quickly, but such is the lot of humans." The older man raised his weapon. "Servant Assassin shall now send you to hell." Assassin's bloody sword rose as he readied himself for a final blow.

"Shiki!" Orime screamed, both of her mouths' shouts synchronizing together. The youkai girl threw herself towards Shiki. Her desperate attempt to save the demon hunter failed before it began, though. Her body felt like it was trying to swim through molasses as Orime's eyes focused on the silver crescent of light seeking to behead Shiki.

The descending arc was met by a point of darkness trailing behind a speeding knife. Orime's eyes widened simultaneously as the point of darkness somehow stabbed into the metal of the katana and cleaved through it.

'How...?' Orime's shock was reflected in Assassin's expression – which had been cool and detached the last minute. He forcibly composed himself. The samurai, now wielding a blade reduced to two feet, retreated as Shiki lunged to his feet. The teenager's motions were a quick, violent maneuver – twisting Shiki's body in a series of excessively painful looking contortions.

Blood dripped onto the soft earth as Shiki dove towards Assassin, driving the older man back with a series of rapid knife flicks. The knife strikes efficiently tore through the air - leaving a trail of wavering lines in the air.

'What...is he?' Orime staggered backwards. She felt the mana in the air itself bleed away. Orime felt her body tremble as she instinctively shied away from the clearing. The air itself was filling with a poisonous presence that filled her with dread.

"Run!" Shiki shouted. A growing tone of panic was underlying his words as the rapid flicks of his knife were being dodged by Assassin.

The increasing scent of blood made Orime's decision for her. The youkai girl turned and began to run away from the battle.

'Just hold on! I'll get help!' Orime clenched her teeth. The secondary mouth on the back of her head let out a litany of curses at Assassin.

* * *

><p>Assassin felt the mana in the environment bleed away even as the bizarre teenage girl ran away. Worry filled the samurai as the shadowy strikes from the demon hunter's knife blew stagnant air in Assassin's face with each near miss. The samurai drew back as the nature of Shiki's attacks finally became apparent to him from his tie with nature.<p>

'How are you killing the mana and air, though?' Assassin wondered with no little bemusement. His sword, Monohoshizao, bobbed in his hand as Shiki staggered backwards from him and towards the rows of trees in the area. Despite himself, Assassin approved of Shiki's continued attempts at survival.

Assassin held just enough from his next attack so it could be detected by his target. The gleaming blade of Monohoshizao, cut by the human's counter attack, slashed towards Shiki's neck in a fraction of the Servant's potential speed. Its shortened surface flashed, but the demon hunter grit his teeth and rolled underneath the arc of the sword.

Shiki hissed as he pressed his free hand on his ragged wound. Blood pooled from the gash, which had worsened with his continued dodging and jumping. His uniform was now stained a dark red from the two slashes across his chest, and small droplets of blood fell from it to be drunk by the soil beneath.

"Good work!" Assassin congratulated the teenager.

Shiki glared angrily up at the blue haired man. "Did Roa send you?" He hissed as he wobbled to his feet. Assassin gave the teenager a few moments to start stumbling away from him and towards the woods.

"Who's Roa?" Assassin casually replied as he trailed two feet behind the man. After a few moments, he slashed out with another attack.

Shiki roared with agony as he bounced backwards. The teenager kept one of his hands clutched to the front of his uniform while the other flicked his knife at Assassin's direction. Curiously enough, Assassin felt another portion of his mana stores vanish along with another piece of the katana. "Then...why are you doing this?" He gasped out. With a deep intake of breath, Shiki started rushing away from Assassin at a surprisingly decent speed for a wounded human.

The Servant stepped back in surprise as Shiki glared back at him for a second before vanishing into the tree. 'Is this why I was sent here?' Just before the teenager had stumbled into the tree line, his blue eyes had gazed at Assassin with a palpable amount of hatred.

Assassin's blank expression softened as a tiny smile crossed his thin lips. "Now this has gotten interesting." He murmured as he casually began to walk in Shiki's wake. The Servant glanced at his weapon, which had been shortened by the last two knife strikes from Shiki, and banished it away. It'd be useless for his purposes anyway.

* * *

><p>Trees rose like bleached daggers from the lumpy earth. The skies were filled with a network of branches due to the close distance between the various trees in Shiki's path.<p>

'What was that thing?' Shiki's breath escaped from him in ragged bursts as he rushed through the sea of flora. 'Roa didn't summon it, but it's clearly targeting me.' Each of his gasps stoked the flames of the pain raging beneath his chest.

'If I had reacted a little bit slower...' He angrily trailed off. Shiki's hand pulled away from his chest. A fresh coat of blood clung to his fingers. The liquid flowed around the thick black lines that appeared before his Mystic Eyes. Shiki's felt profoundly disturbed as his eyes sharpened as he looked at the blood.

The blood had three thick, intersecting lines of death running through it. That was on top of the lines on his hand.

Shiki gagged as the world around him began to blur in and out. "Not now!" The teenager nearly retched as his head painfully pulsed in time with the visions. Shiki's forward momentum halted altogether as he heavily leaned up against a nearby tree.

The teenager's body twitched and convulsed. A look of disgust soured his expression, curdling his lips downwards into a sharp scowl. The intensity of Shiki's blue eyes increased along with their luminescence as he glanced upwards.

Two sets of lines appeared within the thick bark of the massive tree Shiki was resting against. A larger, but completely stationary set of black lines ran along the tree in various degrees of thickness and a smaller, mobile series of lines lazily bobbed up and down the tree.

'Like a damn insect infesting the tree.' Shiki felt anger continue to build in him the longer he touched this particular tree. His emotions, already on a razor's edge because of his injuries, began to tip towards the more homicidal. 'I should kill the damn thi-NO!'

Shiki furiously shook his head. 'I can't do that here.' His eyes clenched shut as he tried to banish the vision of the lines. The killing urges began to decrease with the increasing distance he was putting between him and the youkai possessed tree.

A tingle of icy fear raced up his spine. Shiki instinctively shoved past the pain and leapt away. His eyes snapped open as Assassin soared across the space the teenager had been standing in and slammed a fist into the thick trunk of the tree. Wood splintered as his hand sunk two inches into the tree.

Shiki immediately rushed towards the samurai, but Assassin was still fast enough to dance away from the teenager's attempt at slashing off his arm with his knife. Shiki's heartbeat dramatically shot up from the near miss, but Assassin kept a composed expression on his face.

Shiki's body trembled, but he felt his body begin to actually grow faster as numbness began to set into his chest. His lips pulled back as he snarled at Assassin, who continued calmly swaying around Shiki's rapid knife strikes.

'I just have to keep him standing here for a few more moments!' Shiki kept his hope from showing on his face. The smaller lines within the tree sped down towards the ground level.

"What are you...?" The samurai murmured.

In response to Assassin's words, the bark of the tree the two were battling in front of began to ripple. A small wriggle formed in the center of the tree. It began to swiftly grow in size and the speed they raced across the bark of the towering flora.

The portion of the tree behind the samurai split open to spit out a Bisan. The Bisan, a cicada the size of Shiki's head, buzzed through the air and slammed into Assassin's back. Loud buzzing filled the air as the insect kept pressing its advantage against the staggering samurai. The Bisan's gossamer wings rapidly fluttered as the youkai furiously attacked the samurai with its claws and sharp jaws.

"Get...off!" Assassin roared. His movements were a blur as he slammed his fist into the carapace of the cicada's body. A loud crunch and a warped buzzing answered as the Bisan was sent flying away from the blue haired man and towards the tree it was defending.

"Attack!" Orime's voice shouted from above as a set of bluish black spider like limbs erupted out from beneath Assassin.

Two female youkai, obviously lead by Orime from her perch above the fight, descended from the branches above. A cyclopic schoolgirl wielding a massive staff three times her size and width, slammed the weapon down at Assassin.

The Servant let out a grunt of surprise as he called his stunted katana to meet the weapon. His stance wobbled as the limbs below him tightened around his legs. The second girl, who had a fluffy gold tail and white stripes, launched a ball of bluish white flame straight at Assassin before he could react.

"Gah!" The blue haired man shouted as the fireball exploded outwards. It didn't hurt him much at all - his face only looked slightly sunburned - but the combination of the three attacks were enough to stagger Assassin.

In that moment, Shiki tore across the distance separating himself from Assassin in the blink of an eye. The tip of his knife slammed into one of the major lines on Assassin's body. The blue haired samurai gurgled out blood as gravity did Shiki's work for him – allowing the teenager's knife to smoothly slice through Assassin. The samurai collapsed onto the ground with a major tear along part of his body.

"Ha...good one." Assassin's wheezed as blood, dark as night, bubbled out from his lips and from the wounds he suffered. The grass curled up and dried out to an anemic looking yellow wherever the man's blood splashed.

'Just like that rock...' Shiki realized with a jolt. 'What the hell is that material?' The teenager turned his eyes on the black sludge oozing out of the massive wound on the samurai's side.

Shiki let out a tiny shriek as the face of madness greeted him. Instinctively, his grip on his knife slipped and his muscles went slack as faintly remembered battles against mind benders prevented him from instantly slamming his knife into his own skull.

The world went blood red as the lines of death all around him bled an ocean's worth of blood.

"Shiki!" Orime's voice sounded warped. The youkai's words sounded like they were being shouted to him through a corroded telephone line with the amount of static that was bombarding him as his brain attempted to bake itself with the impossibility.

Shiki collapsed to his knees with a howl of agony.

"But can you still maintain control?" Assassin managed to summon up the energy to smirk at Shiki. "This is the start of the only **real **fight I can have with you, boy." His body began to lose its definition as it turned into a mass of black soil. Before anyone could react, the mass rose and smashed down on top of Shiki.

Everything went dark for Shiki as he felt himself fall face first to the ground.

* * *

><p>Awareness slowly returned to Shiki. He found himself on his hands and knees in a pool of black sludge. While his uniform's shirt was still cut up, there was no hint of injuries beneath the fabric. Bright red liquid surged deep beneath the surface of the slime in a circular fashion. Thin lines, nearly invisible, were superimposed over the mass beneath him.<p>

The back of Shiki's head pulsed in a slow, steady drumming that matched his heartbeat. He quickly looked upwards to avoid seeing the ooze beneath him, but was greeted by an unpleasant sight.

A sea of darkness spread out as far as he could see. Occasionally, deep lines of jagged crimson light erupted from beneath the surface. Once that happened the seas would tremble and rise to furiously pound at the only building that could be seen in the center of the sea.

Once the demon hunter felt his eyes began to burn – he moved to immediately cover his eyes with the Mystic Eye Killer. Once the glasses were covering his eyes, blessed relief flooded Shiki. The teenager looked around as he wiped the black ooze on his hands off on his uniform jacket.

The faint lines superimposed over the sea around him vanished, but a faint sense of unease remained with Shiki the longer he looked around his surroundings. It reminded him of the tingling sense of danger he had been feeling up until dawn.

'Come on. You can't stay staring around like a fool.' Shiki took a few more moments to compose himself before he shoved himself up to his knees.

The tower of silver he had seen in the center of this world drew his gaze once again. A set of spheres, one silver and the other gold, shone on the top of the building. They shone with intense light whenever the black and red ocean around the tower began to rise to try and swallow the building.

"What...is this place?" The demon hunter muttered. He glanced down at his chest

"This is the Holy Grail." By the time that Shiki glanced back up, he saw that a redhaired teenager with sherry eyes stood in front of him in a worn looking white and blue t-shirt and denim jeans. "Welcome, Shiki Nanaya of Earth. You have shown the ability to resist great hatred." He casually waved at Shiki with a merry smile on his face.

"I...what?" Shiki blankly stared at the newcomer. The redhead looked like he got a lot of blank looks from other people. The sherry eyed youth shrugged off the stare and ran a hand through his short hair before he continued.

"My name is Shirou Urobuchi." Shirou calmly continued. His brow crinkled a little as disappointment shone in his eyes. "Assassin dragged your mind over here after you proved yourself interesting enough for him."

"Can I get out?" Shiki immediately asked. The tense lines of aggravation melted off him when Shirou nodded. Shiki breathed out a sigh of relief as he glanced at Shirou. "Where is this place?" He panicked once he felt the reassuring weight of his knife missing from his person. "And my knife?"

"Woah, woah!" Shirou held up his hands. "One question at a time." He shook his head. "You can get out. It isn't that much Grail Mud that you got submerged in. I came here to help you out."

"Sorry...but what about my knife?"

"That's fine." Shirou smirked. "You didn't worry about it until now." When he saw that Shiki still didn't understand, Shirou continued. "This place is sort of like an imaginary world, I guess. You can create anything you want if you only think about it here."

"So...none of this is real?" Shiki frowned. Then why did he need his glasses to seal his eyes even here?

"No, it's pretty real. It's just really easy to get your wishes granted here." Shirou gave Shiki an understanding look. "It's weird, I know."

Shiki rubbed his head as he gave a shaky nod at Shirou.

"Our abilities work here too. Assassin showed me you have some freaky eyes, right? Mystic Eyes and magecraft work here." Shirou pointed at his own sherry eyes. "Please don't try to overwork your eyes down here, though." He grimaced. "You probably wouldn't like the results."

"Wait...Assassin was your familiar?" Shiki took a defensive step back as he summoned his knife.

"Haha. No, I'm a crap Magus." Shirou grinned. Seeing Shiki's look of disbelief, he continued. "That's a very high level ghost, I guess. Uses way too much mana for someone like me to be the Master of, Scout's Honor." He smiled and held up his right hand.

Shiki narrowed his eyes slightly. "Right." He drawled, but Shiki couldn't see any signs of deception in the redhead's expression at all. The demon hunter let out a put upon sigh and lowered his knife. "Okay. I'll believe you."

"That's good. It isn't a smart idea to second guess your ride home." Shirou chirped. Seeing that Shiki was getting annoyed again, the redhead quickly continued. "Anyway, the true Master is this sea." He gestured around the area. "But I managed to enforce enough of my will that I'm able to put a death trigger in him if he doesn't do what I say."

"Then why did he attack me?" Shiki leaned towards Shirou. "Unless you were alright with it?" He narrowed his eyes behind his glasses.

In response, Shirou gave a shrug. "Sorry, man, but I'd rather have Assassin land near you and get it in his head to challenge you than land somewhere with innocents and rampage." He grandly gestured at their surroundings. "This sea was split into seven different portions. Each of them are seeking out the others to combine, and once they do it's game over for humanity."

"What?" Shiki's eyes widened. "Wait...was this what was wrong earlier tonight?" Shirou gave a grim nod in response.

"It would have killed everyone off. All I could do was delay it by taking over the tower." The redhead glanced away from Shiki. "I'm sorry...but you're going to have to join this new Holy Grail War." He mumbled.

'As if dealing with Roa wasn't enough...' Shiki grimaced. The expression of genuine regret in Shirou's face kept him from saying anything negative though. 'But if this is really true... I can't risk putting everyone's lives in danger.'

"Tell me more." Shiki calmly replied.

* * *

><p>A vast warehouse, reinforced with countless steel bulkheads and pillars along its roof and walls, spread out as far as the eye could see once they entered via elevator. The observer, a fourteen year old boy with shoulder length dark hair, dark blue eyes, and a set of white robes over dark pants gazed upon the countless rows of steel platforms in neat little rows. They extended out from his side of the warehouse to the opposite end.<p>

The boy, Merem Solomon, casually exited the elevator and started crossing one of several steel catwalks that zipped along above the platforms. His goal was the office perched on the far north side of the warehouse.

In his hands, he held a bag composed of a mix of plastic cover with a lead interior. While the teenager scoffed at the item within being capable of hurting him, he knew that the humans that worked with him in the Burial Agency sometimes lived or died based on whether these bags held together. Merem considered teasing the caretaker of the warehouse by 'accidentally' dropping the little hazardous material bag in his hands when he arrived.

'Hmph. I bet he'd try to find a way to kill me if I did that to this object, though.' Merem sighed and decided to not tempt fate this time. The bag in his hands, large enough to hold the hand sized device within, shifted about in his arms. 'Why do all the cool things have to get sealed away, though?' Merem sadly wondered. He glanced at the enchanted bag with longing.

He wished that the Holy Church had never decided to create this subterranean warehouse to contain and seal all these wonderful objects sometimes. At least he got to play with them a little before he had to seal them away. Plus someday he might get another chance to play with them if the Church ever lifted their restrictions for the Burial Agency to use.

So with that thought in mind, Merem promptly ignored the Tesla Gun that he had acquired on his latest trip. He had more pressing concerns now that he was at the halfway point on the long catwalk. It had widened to allow pedestrians to keep going forwards along the platform or go on one of the four ziplines. Each of them led into different parts of the vast warehouse through a series of paths along the ceiling of the building.

Merem grasped the line that would take him to the caretaker's area just as another person moved next to him and grasped the one leading to another area. Moments later, both Burial Agency agents were off. Merem happily shrieked his heart out as he was carried across the horizon of the warehouse, the devices above his head chugging along as his zipline carried him forwards at ridiculous speeds.

The fourteen year old laughed as his line took a sharp corner. Another of the Burial Agency's members continued past the section he had turned at, going into the Escher Vault to drop off one of the multitude of items deemed too dangerous even for their normal grab and bag seals.

'Getting to play with items deemed dangerous to mankind?' Merem kicked his feet as he floated above the rows of sealed items. 'Stopping Dead Apostles that give me and Lady Arcueid a bad rep?' He lightly bounced the sealed Tesla Gun in his left arm and his right hand gripped onto the hook carrying him further into the building. 'Wish I had joined the Burial Agency sooner!'

The caretaker's office drew close up ahead. Moments after Merem arrived he made his way towards the large steel door separating the room from the rest of the warehouse. With a light exertion, the Burial Agency member easily twisted the massive steel wheel on the front of the door, unlatching the door's locks as he casually strutted into the nerve center of the building.

The room was fairly large, but the room always felt cluttered to Merem due to the wall in front of him being dominated by sensors. Each of them were tied to the various shelves on the warehouse floor four stories below. Whenever one of the objects was removed from its individual spot, the appropriate sensor lit up and caused a ruckus until the removal was approved.

A large brass and copper computer was also set up on that side of the room, which allowed quick access to the databases of the other warehouses across the world.

One the western side of the room, a small kitchenette sat in an alcove – it included a refrigerator and coffee maker. Directly next to the kitchenette was a metal, circular staircase leading to an upper level. Merem had once tried to walk up those stairs, but he had been threatened with being thrown out of the warehouse if he tried again.

That had been the longest month long ban in his very long life.

The alcove was offset thanks to the large window to the south. It had a panoramic display of the interior of the warehouse itself. Merem spared a glance back the way he had come. Warehouse Agents, that is to say the ones that only collected objects of interest, could be seen zipping to and fro on the zipline system like little ants.

Merem shook the sight off and made his way to the massive desk on the eastern wall. He weaved and darted around stuffy old furniture that wouldn't be out of place in a turn of the nineteenth century European home. Along the wall to the right and rear of the desk were two massive filing cabinets. The first wall of drawers resembled an old library card catalog. The desk itself was overflowing with texts and manuals with all manner of apocalyptic doomsday prophecies and mythological texts.

"Are you still alive in there, Mikiya? I didn't think your origin would cause even books to be able to kick your ass!" Merem bravely glanced past paperwork and tomes to look at the face of his boss, Mikiya Ryougi.

A dark haired man in his thirties, dressed in blue dress shirt and dark slacks, looked less than impressed with Merem as he set down the book he had been glancing through. "Hardy har. Mock the guy who finds it hard to attack too much and his wife might be alerted." Mikiya drawled as he glanced up at him with his single working eye and his eye patch.

The thought of facing Shiki Ryougi sent a tiny shiver through Merem's spine.

Mikiya faintly smirked as he saw how pale Merem had gone. Serve him right for mocking him. Mikiya continued once he saw that Merem had managed to compose himself. "So, you have the item, I hope?" The caretaker of the warehouse asked.

"Of course!" Merem puffed out his chest, trying to make up for lost machismo. "How many years have we worked together?" He rhetorically asked. "Of course you can trust that I found it." Merem held up the bag containing the Tesla Gun.

"Great. One less thing on our plate." Mikiya grumbled. The book that he had been holding was shifted beneath a cover of papers as subtly as he possibly could. The last thing he needed to hear was...

Merem perked up as his eyes spotted the book that Mikiya had been reading. "Oh my Lady, is that really a copy of 'Tsukihime'?"

'Great.' Mikiya closed his eye as he let out a sigh of remorse. 'He's going to go fanboy on me. Again.'

"What edition is it? Huh? Huh?" Merem let the bag he had been holding slam down on top of one of the stacks of papers on the table as he moved around it towards Mikiya's side.

The beleaguered caretaker snapped his eye open and let out a yelp of shock. The tower of papers, unsettled by the added weight on top, began to wobble dangerously. Mikiya dove for the plummeting pile of work even as Merem lashed out to grab the old fairytale book.

Both men collided halfway, bouncing off each other. The hardcopy of Tsukihime went soaring one direction, the unstable pile of paperwork another, and the sealed Tesla Gun a third way in a ruinous mess.

"...Merem." Mikiya monotonously droned as he stared down into the teenager's eyes. Merem began to awkwardly whistle as he tried his best to glance away from Mikiya's dark look. The older man simply raised his index and lightly drew it across his neck.

"...on it." Merem lightly stamped his foot. Evil thoughts about Shiki Ryougi and her ilk flowed through his mind. The teenager grumbled and bitched as he cleaned up the mess he had created.

Mikiya smirked over at the fourteen year old, but his moment of triumph was cut off as the sensors lit up with warnings. His pleased expression smoothed down to a stone cold expression as he rushed over towards the bank of computers.

Merem quickly glanced over, arms already full of papers, and quickly let them drop as he eagerly moved over with Mikiya to look at the alert.

One of the computers in particular, a bronze and copper tower and monitor with an old fashioned glass screen, was flashing. Just as Mikiya sat down at it, the message flashed to life on the screen. On the screen, a powerfully built old man with dark skin and spiked back gray hair gazed at Mikiya and Merem.

"How's it hanging, Zelretch?" Merem immediately greeted the older Dead Apostle with a toothy grin as he leaned over Mikiya's shoulder to look at the gray haired man.

"I ran into this charming little multiverse the other day." Zelretch smirked and played along. "It had real life magical girls running around. I think my older apprentice wound up falling in there, though." He gave a put upon sigh. "I wish I had been the one. Lucky bastard."

Mikiya gave Merem a stern look over his shoulder before turning back towards Zelretch. "To what do we owe the honor of this call, Wizard Marshall?"

"Well, you're the only branch of the Church that has even partial access to Japan thanks to the warehouse's snarl in space." Zelretch began. "I needed to let you two alert the higher ups in the Burial Agency that my granddaughter and her friend are coming to Japan."

Merem let out a high pitched squeal of joy.

Mikiya's eyes widened. "Wait...Lady Brunestud is coming?" The caretaker asked as a hint of fear began to cross his expression.

In response, Zelretch let out a pleased chuckle. "They've come to recover six shards of an Ancient God for me. The ones that normally would do this are bound to a set of land."

"But what about the Mage's Association?" Mikiya wondered. His hands were nervously tapping on the keyboard for the computer.

"I've told them to stay out of the way." Zelretch glanced at something off screen. He looked at Mikiya and Merem. "I have to go now." He paused in thought. "Good luck." Zelretch smirked at them as the message cut off.

Mikiya's body immediately slumped back against his chair. "Arcueid Brunestud is going to be coming to Japan." The statement tumbled out from his slack lips like a doomsday prophecy as he turned back towards Merem.

"I know! Isn't that great?" Merem happily screamed. His eyes lit up as he snapped his fingers. "You know what this calls for, right?"

A ragged sigh of horror escaped Mikiya's lips.

"It's time for...the list!" Merem held up a hand. "Just a minute!" The boy raced out of Mikiya's messy office with his arms extended at his sides.

'Did I miss some sort of anniversary, Shiki?' Mikiya silently thought. 'Are you punishing me because I forgot to celebrate the day you first thought about murdering me? Is that it?' He wondered as he prepared himself for Merem's Arcueid rants.

* * *

><p><em>The Mage's Association often question her...just because they find her interesting.<em>

A palatial room, designed to resemble a grand Senate in dark hues, was full of European men and women. Each of them were dressed in the style of those in power - with flowing and elegant outfits and expensive accessories on their persons. All of them had a tangible aura of power about them. Yet the entire room was entirely focused on a solitary woman.

None dared whisper or speak amongst themselves in the presence of the long haired blonde with red eyes that stood at the bottom of the room. Almost in defiance to the rules, she was wearing a simple sunflower themed dress, flip flops, and a wicker hat. The woman cheerfully spoke to a rather shocked looking red haired woman with glasses that was sitting at the bottom of the Senate styled room.

_Her hair alone has experienced more than a lesser being's entire body._

The same long haired blonde, looking about fourteen and now dressed in an elegant silver and white ball gown, calmly caught the claws of another fourteen year old girl with a single hand. Their surroundings, a vast courtyard surrounded by white flowers and bathed in the full moon light high above looked damaged.

In the distance, a grand castle could be seen burning.

Her opponent, a dark haired girl with red eyes and clad in the same type of gown as the blonde, strained as she tried to claw at the blonde's face and hair.

The blonde looked a bit bored. She begun to spin, carrying her long haired rival around with the motion, and let her go with a mighty throw. The black haired girl began to flail and wave her arms, but she plunged into the depths behind one of the castle's windows.

Moments later, the tower that the blonde had flung the dark haired girl into began to collapse.

_Her blood smells like success._

The blonde, now only a little girl, blinked up at a tall man with flowing black hair with her wide, red eyes. She still wore an elegant dress, but it wasn't nearly as beautiful as the one she had as a teenager. The man that was talking to her was dressed in the robes of the Burial Agency. After a few moments of conversation, he offered her a rose with a gallant smile.

The girl briefly looked tempted to take the rose, but she shook her head and gave him an apologetic look. She curtsied towards the stunned looking man, lifted the skirts of her dress, and rushed away towards the side of a tall man with white hair and a black and red shirt and suit.

The white haired man gave the Burial Agency member a faintly mocking look before taking the blonde's small hand and leading her away.

The Burial Agency member crushed the white rose in his trembling grasp. Blood, which had been hidden within the flower, oozed out from inside the flower.

_She is the most interesting woman in the world._

An airplane, having descended on Misaki that day, slowly began to empty as the passengers began to exit it. A pair of women in particular began moving through the crowd like a pair of sharks, parting the sea of humanity before them. Men stared in wonder and women wished they could be them as the blonde and blue haired women exited the airport.

"I don't always ride planes, but when I do, I think I'll keep using that company!" A long haired blonde dressed in a tight, white sweater and flowing purple skirt happily chirped over at her companion. Her cheerful expression faded into curiousity as she poked the blue haired woman in the shoulder. "Mou, pay attention, El!" She whined as she noticed the other woman, dressed in a floor length black leather jacket over an outfit with earth tones, was looking around with a look of dawning realization.

"Arc, Roa is here."

Elesia's statement flipped a switch in the bubbly woman. Arcueid's entire body tensed up. Her red eyes went cold.

"That bastard must be after the Caster piece." Arcueid hissed, killing intent radiating out from her body.

Elesia solemnly nodded. "If he can combine with it, it would be enough to dramatically empower him." She closed her eyes. A focus of will pushed old memories back. "We need to make sure he doesn't get a hold of it, Arcueid."

"Then rip him apart limb from limb." Arcueid had managed to compose herself. A more commanding, regal air was about her. "I'll show that sorceror the folly of taking anyone away from me." She clenched her fist.

* * *

><p>"...and that's why she says it's best to stay thirsty!" Merem finished his rant about the wonders of Arcueid to a bored looking Mikiya. "No blood for Lady Brunestud at all."<p>

Mikiya mildly considered banging his head up against his desk to induce a coma to escape from Merem's overwhelmingly deep love of the True Ancestor.

'No, I need to stay awake. I'll miss too many of Mana's firsts in highschool if I pass out now.' He sadly thought as he prepared himself for round two of Merem's rant. 'Oh god, he's breaking out the merchandise.' Mikiya thought in mild horror as Merem broke out his own copy of Tsukihime.

* * *

><p>The demon hunter looked down at his chest as he sat up back in the forest clearing. While his uniform was still shredded, both of the wounds on his torso had been completely healed.<p>

A dark brown card with the image of a muscular man wielding two dark knives rested in Shiki's hands. The figure on the card had his pale torso exposed, but his face and legs were covered with black rags. A white skull mask covered the man's face in addition to the rags wrapped around his head.

The card and the dried out grass around Shiki were the only signs that he had even run into Assassin.

"Can you get my glasses?" Shiki waved away attempts by the youkai girls and the Bisan to tend to him as he sat up. "Please?" His voice sounded strained as he felt the irrational bud of hate in his gut try to overwhelm him, but the youkai – knowing a little bit about the demon hunter – moved to put some space between them while he had his glasses off.

The three youkai girls went to fetch the glasses while the Bisan flew back into its tree to begin attempts at repairing the damage Assassin had caused to it. Once his temper began to cool down, Shiki heard a faint chuckle in the back of his head.

'So, have you heard the full story, then?' Assassin wondered. At Shiki's hum of agreement, the samurai let out a laugh of approval. 'Good. It'll be interesting to see how far you can go with my power.'

Shiki closed his eyes and let himself flop back on the ground as he faced the sky.

* * *

><p><em>Wise Up!<em>

Gates of Babylon

Originally the icon of the hero Gilgamesh, the Gates of Babylon was separated from the rest of the world in its own dimension. This was done to keep dirty thieves from ever touching the various artifacts stored within the vault. While this sounds very impressive, I imagine that summoning a key shaped sword to access it doesn't add a lot of man points to Gilgamesh's score.

Despite Gilgamesh's desperate attempts to run home to his house with his ball after he died, the Gates were breached over time. The artifacts themselves were scattered into the world first and then the Gates themselves were lost in the terrific disaster that ended the Age of the Gods.

As far as I can tell, I think some guy named Kratos shanked some bitches.

…

Just kidding.

The Gates somehow survived, but the damage was severe enough to cause the singular gate to fracture and eventually shatter into lesser dimensional pockets. These pockets floated around the suface of the world before coming to rest at various locations.

One became the Library of Alexandria, but it was lost. The second one became known as the Warehouse.

These days, Burial Agents of the Roman Catholic Church use the Warehouse to store all dangerous artifacts from the grubby little fingers of human dictators or axe crazy non-humans. There's even a division of the Burial Agency, called warehouse agents, that focus on hunting down the various items from the Gates that were scattered across the world.

Once an artifact is discovered, the warehouse agents of the Burial Agency move to suppress it, bag it, and tag it with specialized equipment. Only those that are approved by the Caretaker are then allowed to remove the objects once they have been placed in the Warehouse.

They moved too slow to suppress Disco, though. By far, this was the greatest tragedy of the last hundred years.

Dead Apostle Ancestor and Burial/Warehouse Agent Merem Solomon has attempted to stage a coup against the current Caretaker, Mikiya Ryougi, over twenty times over the last five years. Every time he falls to Mikiya's wife's mighty glare, though.

Oh? Who's his wife? Well, that's...zzzckt!


	5. Chapter 5

Tsukihime is the property of Type-Moon. Melty Blood is the property of Type-Moon and French-Bread. Melty Blood Act Cadenza is the property of Type-Moon and Ecole Software. All additional references and parodies belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 4: Shrine

The meteor, now a dark stone about the size of Shiki's fists put together, swung along the front of his chest on a leather cord. He had been given the stone by the youkai before he headed off with a promise that he never bring the stone back into the boundary field placed over the park again. Shiki had obliged the three lovely ladies and one bisan by heading out with a yawn.

'They don't seem to like me.' Assassin dryly observed as they exited the park.

'Of course not.' Shiki Nanaya replied as his hands rose to try and adjust the leather around his neck. It felt stifling all of a sudden. 'I'd chuck you out too if I could.'

Assassin merely chuckled. 'Why so glum? Don't believe what the Usurper had to say?'

Shiki stuck his hands into his pockets as he turned a corner and joined the flow of morning foot traffic. 'No, I believe him.' He recalled Shirou's body language. 'He seems too scatterbrained to be a liar.' The problem of course was what all of this was going to bring down on Misaki.

Assassin seemingly picked up on that. 'Of course. You're a Master in the Holy Grail War...or a facsimile of such now.'

Shiki walked past the spotless surface of a store display and hesitated. His reflection stood frozen in place as several pedestrians brushed past him. None of them seemed to recognized the blue haired samurai that calmly stood behind Shiki.

Assassin's reflection caught Shiki's eyes with his own.

'There's no point raging against the circumstances. We have to prepare for battle.' The older man simply stated with a smile.

* * *

><p>Shiki Tohno gazed out from the window of his father's old sitting room. It had a magnificent view of the front yard of the mansion, and even the towering upper floors of Shrine downtown.<p>

However, his view was occupied by the sight of his sister and her maid casually laughing as they walked down the long cemented path to the front gate.

Akiha looked as beautiful as she always did. Her long, luxurious crimson hair shone in the morning sun. The only thing that could even exceed the beauty of her locks were her blue eyes – mirthful and passionate as she talked with the other girl.

Shiki pressed his palm against the cool glass of the window. The floor beneath him creaked a little as he leaned forwards. The noise was more than enough to conceal the sound of the door to the office opening.

Kohaku peeked into the room. The maid frowned when she saw Shiki staring off into the courtyard. A brief flare of distaste filled her expression, but she smoothed it down as she stepped into the room on softly padded footsteps.

The redhead briefly considered the span of distance between herself and Shiki. She idly wondered if she could cover it and shove the casually dressed young man out through the window before he could react.

From seeing Shiki's body subtly tense as he somehow caught onto her presence, she decided it would be too much trouble.

Pity.

"I'm back." Kohaku spoke up into the silence. She felt two objects squirm within her kimono at the sound of her words.

Shiki pulled away from the window and turned towards the maid. "How did it go?" He casually moved towards Kohaku.

"My old familiar is gone now." Kohaku replied as she closed the door behind her. Not that it really mattered at this point, but old habits died hard. "I was able to pull some information from it before it died. It finished its last mission before it went rogue."

"Did you recover your magic circuits?" Shiki urgently pressed. "It's not part of the central mass. Shiki would have left it whole." He would leave nothing to chance if he could help it.

Kohaku brought out a still twitching tail from the depths of her kimono in response.

Relief filled Shiki as he nodded in approval.

"The Shrine is fully operational today too." Kohaku added as she idly lashed the air with the still moving limb.

Shiki moved to take a seat at his desk. "Good. We're moving the rest of the equipment from the basement tonight." He began to flip through the notes that vied for his attention. "The few branch heads that remain have been growing more anxious about the Boundary Field around the mansion lately. They think it's practically asking for an attack."

'If only they only knew who was the cause of their deaths.' Kohaku thought with faint amusement. The limb in her arms stiffened almost in outrage as it curled around her left arm with surprising amounts of strength. 'Sorry, kitty, but it wasn't my fault you never researched who was staying with the Arima head.'

The maid cleared her throat, causing Shiki to glance back up at her. "There's one last thing...I ran into Shiki-kun while retrieving my scaredy cat." Kohaku continued. She savored the look of annoyance that the white haired man offered her.

"So, what did Nanaya say?" Shiki scowled. His hand rose almost against his will to rub at a faint mark on his jawline from where he had been struck a month ago.

"He's attributed the deaths of the Arima head, his wife, and the others in the last few weeks to 'Roa'." Kohaku faithfully repeated the words she had been told. The maid continued when she saw that Shiki was gaining a sharp smirk on his features. "I also invited him back home, per Akiha-sama's orders." She added with an innocent smile.

"...damn that old man." Shiki's amusement curdled per Kohaku's intention. "Even when he finally fucking dies he out-schemes me."

"Now, Tohno-sama, no need to be like that." The maid calmly assured Shiki. "Akiha-sama serves as an excellent distraction as the head of the main branch."

Shiki reluctantly nodded. 'The remaining heads of the family will be too busy trying to turn Akiha to their points of view.' He anxiously chewed on his lower lip at the thought. Noticing that Kohaku's was still gazing at him, he continued with a stronger tone of voice. "But she's still strong. She won't bend before them so easily."

Kohaku hid her smirk as she excused herself. "Well, I'll go and prepare your meal, Tohno-sama." The maid turned to leave.

"Leave the tail with me, Kohaku."

The maid let out a curse in the depths of her mind, hoping that Shiki's worry over Akiha would have served a good enough smokescreen for her retreat. "Why, of course, Tohno-sama." She murmured as she turned and placed the twisting tail on top of the desk.

Shiki and Kohaku's gazes locked for an endless moment as she looked up from placing it on the table.

"Good." Shiki sharp red eyes softened a bit as Kohaku stepped away from the desk.

"Is there anything else I can do, Tohno-sama?" The maid kept her own amber gaze just a few degrees from being belligerent.

"The full moon will be up soon." Shiki dropped the statement casually.

Kohaku paused. She took a few moments to organize her thoughts before she continued. She couldn't afford to show any disgust on her face right now. "Would you like me to summon a youkai to retrieve someone for you?"

"Yes. Tell them I want a girl this time. This month has been trying."

'Poor you, killing most of your family.' Kohaku fought back the urge to narrow her eyes at the playful tone in Shiki's voice. 'Then again, I'm no better, am I?'

"Of course." Kohaku replied. She surprised herself with how calm her tone was at the moment.

"You're free to go." Shiki waved Kohaku off. "Bring me my drink in an hour." With that, he began to pour over the paperwork in front of him with his full attention.

The maid curtsied and exited the room. Once the door was closed behind her, she broke out into a smile of relief. 'Good to see that the heads' magic circuits worked as a good substitution.' She thought as she headed in the direction of her bedroom to fetch her bag of tools.

As she turned down the hall, she nearly came crashing into an empty eyed servant in a tweed uniform. "Woah!" Kohaku stumbled backwards, but the servants merely shifted in place, managing to keep a hold of the small urn in his hands.

"Is there anything wrong, mistress?" The older man spoke in an unruffled tone.

The redhead nearly slammed her palm against her chest, feeling her heart attempt to erupt past her ribcage. "N-no." Kohaku took several deep breaths as she took a few moments to compose herself. "That's fine. I'm sorry for troubling you, Tanaka-san." She mumbled as she walked around one of the oldest members of the household.

"Have a good day, mistress." Tanaka airily spoke to her back as he went back to woodenly polishing the urn before setting it aside without another thought in his mind.

Kohaku gave the man a mournful glance before she went into her room and locked the door shut behind her.

* * *

><p>'So, this is your home?' Assassin's voice rumbled as Shiki entered the Arima household. 'Didn't you say you lived with someone else?' The small home was dim, curtains drawn shut as Shiki went around opening a few of them.<p>

"Miyako probably already went to school." Shiki explained. "She's usually not around when I get home from my late nights." He unbuttoned his ragged jacket, exposing his stained white shirt as he headed for his room.

'Do you do this often?'

"More than enough, I guess." Shiki grunted as he walked out into the narrow hallway past the living room. The house warmed up slightly with the exposed sunlight as he headed straight for his room, ignoring the kitchen and its tempting food for now.

Shiki casually walked into his bedroom and up to his dresser. He swept aside a few copies of Nippon Camera and trinkets that he had found amusing enough to buy with his money. One of the magazines, dated from March, bounced to the ground and flipped open.

Shiki let out a curse when he didn't find his sewing kit. He bent down to pick up the magazine and smiled at Shiki Ryougi, a stunningly attractive dark haired woman in a beautiful white kimono, as she pulled out a child from wreckage from the last major earthquake.

'Ryougi Syndicate shows Chivalrous Organizations still exist in the turn of the Millenia...'

Shiki closed the book and set it back on top of his clutter of camera parts and other magazines. Stripping off his shirt, he grabbed a box of needles and thread from the top drawer and walked over to his bed without his shirt on as he easily ran the thread through the top of the needle and began to mend the tears on his jacket.

'Well, it's good to see you're able to take care of your things.' Assassin let out a laugh. 'Must be tough having to do all of this yourself, huh?'

"Hmph. I'll have you know that I'm great at mending." Shiki replied through a mouthful of fabric as he calmly and casually basked in the silence as he swept the needle in and out of his jacket. "I just hope I don't run into more lunatics like you this week." He grunted in displeasure. He probably would, though. "I'm going to have to invest in some cheap sweaters to go out on patrol."

'So you're always out like this?'

"Yeah. For a few years now." Shiki paused in his sewing. "Up until recently I was able to sneak out every other day." He stared sightlessly past the eastern wall. While his glasses prevented his gaze from literally penetrating the walls, he knew that an empty, dark bedroom was just past the wall.

He didn't have anything holding him back now, though.

Assassin remained silent.

"Miyako understands why I'm going out." The teenager insisted as his gaze snapped back to the present. He looked past a few posters of gravure models that Arihiko had insisted he take 'for the sake of being a guy'.

Shiki's stomach rumbled. "Aaah. I'm beat." He moaned. Shiki let his jacket and sewing kit drop to the ground as he lazily rolled off his bed. With a quick, relaxing stretch, he moved towards the kitchen to grab himself a bite to eat.

Only to come to a complete stop once he saw the opened envelope on the table. He winced as he saw the letter next to it, which was ripped in half and lying before him innocently.

Shiki moved towards it and put the two halves together. His sense of foreboding increased when he saw that it was a letter from Akiha asking him to come back home.

"You were busy this morning, Kohaku." He muttered.

'She's not going to be happy with you when she gets back, is she?' Assassin idly wondered.

Shiki dully nodded.

'Hope you're able to learn Presence Concealment before she gets back, then.' The samurai dryly responded.

* * *

><p>Sion Eltnam Atlasia was growing to hate the wilderness around her. The purple haired alchemist had grown up within the confines of the Atlas for the entirety of her life up to this point, and she was ill prepared for the journey that she had forced herself to join.<p>

She winced as dried leaves loudly crunched beneath her shoes.

Several armored men and women ahead of Sion paused and cast dirty looks back in her direction. Sion took a deep breath, trying to prevent herself from crying at the looks until the knights looked away from her and continued on the curling road.

One of the knights, a gray haired woman in a black and gray jacket and wielding a shield that seemingly melted into the night, lingered until the others had pulled ahead of them before she walked up to Sion.

"Hey, are you alright?" She offered a comforting smile at Sion.

"...yeah." The young woman sniffed a bit, trying to subtly wipe away at her eyes as she tried to keep the older woman from looking down at her too.

The gray haired woman shifted in place patiently, waiting until Sion composed herself before she spoke up again.

"Try to follow in my footsteps, okay? You won't make so much noise that way." The gray haired woman gestured for Sion to follow after her. She waited for Sion to nod before she turned and began to walk after the other knights.

Sion focused, using her memories to copy the older woman's movements exactly as they moved along the wooded path. The purple haired woman, clad from head to toe in thick winter clothing, marveled at what a subtle difference in posture did with her footsteps as she nearly eliminated all the sound she had been causing.

The little bit of light that the stars had been providing them began to vanish as it was choked out. In their place, towering trees with bone like arms reached for the skies above, blocking the view of the heavens and hiding the Dead Apostle they were hunting from their judgment.

The gray haired woman glanced back in surprise. "Heh. Guess you just needed someone to show you how."

"How long will it take to track him?" Sion quietly asked.

"Heh. We barely started." The knight replied with a faint smirk. "Back in my mother's day it'd take them at least a month."

Sion stared at the other woman in horror. She was going to be stuck out here? For another **month**?

"H-hey, don't look like that. It's scaring me." The gray haired woman raised her hands up defensively. "The Night of Wallachia is a completely different beast, though. We'll be in town within a few hours. From there, we just have to try and play damage control on the city."

Sion let out a stuttering sigh of relief, breath fogging in front of her face with the cold.

"Oh yeah..." The gray haired woman suddenly had a look of realization cross her face. "My name is Riesbyfe Stridberg, by the way." She freely offered Sion a grin. "Always happy seeing someone new in the unit."

Sion's smile was a bit more timid. "Uhm...glad to be on board." The alchemist shakily replied.

* * *

><p>Power calls power.<p>

_"Don't leave me alone." _

A long, long, *IN+}).P413!#%^&*-chkt time ago he had traded flesh for power.

_"Tinker..." _

A mantle of curses flowed out from his very sense of self to drape him in the finest of costumes. With the gift of the Black Princess he turned the world into his stage as he twirled and cajoled towards infinity.

_"The hell is that noise?" _

Like natures drew together.

_"Tailor..."_

He very faintly remembered sometimes. Before he had attracted the attention of the gorgeous Dead Apostle Ancestor, he had been searching for something...something precious. Sometime eternal. There had been another one at the time – a dark haired man, wasn't there?

_"Help! Please help me!" _

_Assimilating memetic information (Possibility Lines 10239381233-NW#235987263-NW) - Wendigo (false). Recreation at 73 percent. Consolidating fragmented data from possibility lines 1012-NW to 2329-*#$. _

_"Soldier..."_

The call drew for his attention. It was an insistent, continuous hum for the last week. Yet it wasn't powerful enough to call him away from his pre-planned route. Only one other could draw him away from the route.

_"Hush little darling, don't say a word..." _

Until then, he would gorge himself on their fears and then their blood until the agreed upon time.

_"Sailor..."_

_Misaki – 9 months, 27 days, 14 hours, 56 minutes, 1198 seconds, OI&^knpe8qh234_[=023]-l_

"Are you there?"

So it was that a shard of All of the World's Evil was drawn towards the Night of Wallachia. Towards All of Mankind's Fears.

* * *

><p>Akiha Tohno gave her driver a faint smile. He tipped his hat jauntily, causing the heiress to stifle a laugh as she waved him off with a sparkle in her eyes. With a deep breath, she turned towards the short haired girl that had gotten off the limousine with her and offered her a smile.<p>

"Shall we be off, Hisui?"

The jaded eyed girl stoically nodded. She was dressed in her all concealed school uniform as always, with a dark bodysuit beneath it hiding her arms and legs from exposure. "Of course, Akiha-sama." A small smile appeared in the corner of Hisui's lips.

Akiha rolled her eyes at her friend's tone. "A-ki-ha. Just Akiha here at school." Her book bag swung on its handle as she brought both of her hands together in front of her lips. "Please?" She begged.

Hisui merely glanced away. "I'll consider it, Akiha-sama." She quietly replied with an even monotone. Just as the heiress drooped a little bit in disappointment, she was able to catch the faint spark of light in her friend's eyes.

'Point for you.' Akiha grudgingly allowed the girl her victory. Both girls began to slowly walk past the gates of Asagami Private Girls Academy. Neither of the two reacted as a thin and slightly tingly film clung to their faces as they stepped into the school, used to the school's boundary field for as long as they had been coming to the school.

Both of their senses came alive as rich mana flowed around and through their magic circuits. Hisui's eyes glowed with a faint inner light. It was nothing compared to Akiha's hair, which drifted about and around her person with all the subtle motion of a living creature. At times, strands of her hair tried to drift towards Hisui with hungry intent, but they were warded off by an intangible field around the girl.

The other girls of the school they passed didn't pay the two any heed, though. The barrier itself kept the ones that were completely unawakened from noticing magic from noticing such things so long as the awakened girls never blatantly revealed themselves.

And the ones that were like them – well, the number of youkai possessions and full on conversions had been growing ever since the son of Makihisa Tohno had begun to convert Misaki into a place demons like the Tohno Family could rule from the shadows.

Akiha and Hisui gave faint nods to casual acquaintances. Entering the main building of the school before the usual crowd of students piled up before the bell rang was easy. More familiar faces greeted the two girls as they began to ascend the stairs to the second floor.

"Yo, Tohno." A petite, tomboyish girl with short blue hair greeted them as they approached their classroom. Souka Tsukihime had always been a coarse, but steady ally for Akiha for the entire time they had attended school together.

Souka did a double take when she noticed Hisui ascend to the second floor at a much slower rate than Akiha. "Fujou, you're actually not seeing Tokie today!" She blurted in surprise.

'Too bad she's blunt.' Akiha sighed.

"Heh. I like the air in the academy too much to be pulled away." Hisui replied as she fought her limp back as she approached them. "Does a body good." She was heartened by the lack of reaction on either Akiha or Souka's faces.

However, Hisui noticed that someone was missing. "Oh? Where's Misawa-san?" She glanced at the watch on her wrist to confirm it was nearly time for the bell.

A brief mental image of Hanei Misawa appeared in both Souka and Akiha's minds at the same time. They both instinctively crossed their arms in front of their chests. It was their only way to really cope.

"Hanepin-chan got called to Miss Asagami's office." Souka replied as the three of them entered their classroom.

"Hoo? This is news." Hisui raised an eyebrow at Souka.

The blue haired girl shook her head defensively. "No, she isn't in trouble. There's a new teacher that needed to be shown around, and well..."

Akiha groaned. "She volunteered?" She grimaced at Souka's solemn nod.

"There's nothing wrong to want to help." Hisui shook her head at the two in a bit of disgust. "I think it's sweet that she's so helpful."

'I think she's hitting too many flags for Messiahdom.' Souka thought to herself silently. She doubted even her father was as much of a saint as Hanei, and he was a damn priest.

'Too many pluses...especially that ches-' Akiha sadly thought.

However, both of their thoughts were interrupted as the door to their homeroom slid open. An exceedingly healthy brunette with soft features and slightly spacey eyes smiled at them happily.

Hanei waved eagerly at her friends as the electronic tones signaling the beginning of the school day began to resound. However, before the others could respond, she was joined by a woman with dark blue, nearly black, hair in a tight blue outfit that emphasized her femininity.

'**This** is our teacher?' Hisui gaped for once. 'She looks ridiculously young!' She felt a pang of jealousy.

'This...is our teacher?' Souka blinked for a few moments hazily at the blue haired woman. 'Huh. Neat, I guess.'

'Is this a teacher?' Akiha's eyes narrowed as she felt an incredible amount of power radiating from the young woman standing in the front of the class with Hanei. The brunette bowed at the new teacher before walking over to take her seat near the three of them as more people began to fill the classroom.

"Hi, Akiha! Isn't Elesia-sensei neat?" Hanei merrily asked as she loudly set her bookbag down on her desk.

Excited murmurs rose from the arriving students at the sight of the brand new teacher standing before them.

"Oh, it's something, alright..." Akiha muttered as she felt, but rebuffed the force of suggestion radiating from the woman in the front. Even Hisui looked a bit confused, but otherwise accepting of this situation.

'I need to see Miss Asagami.' The schoolgirl thought in frustration.

* * *

><p>Miyu Inui sighed as she solemnly trod through the streets of Fuyuki around lunch time. In the distance she could hear the shouts of rescue workers. Several cranes and fleets of trucks were moving around down the streets, their rumbling engines the only thing that could be heard besides construction equipment.<p>

Her brother Arihiko was at her side, desperately clutching her hand as he made sure not to lose sight of her. Or perhaps because the two of them were being tailed by the King of Conquerors.

The trio passed by a group of construction workers, headed by some of the people that her brother was insisting were mages like they apparently were. One of the helmet clad men gawked at their entourage for a few moments, but the leader of the group merely forced the slacker to stare into his gaze.

Almost like a light switch went off in the back of their head, the gawker would woodenly turn and go join the others. At those moments Miyu could see why her brother was holding onto her hand so tightly. What Miyu wasn't noticing was that several of those mages were giving the siblings rather dark or intrigued looks since she wasn't desperately taking in their surroundings like Arihiko currently was doing.

"You can get closer, my liege." Miyu glanced behind her shoulder. Iskander quickly glanced away as he smoothly picked up a smashed up sports car and lifted it before him like a shield. The girl giggled despite herself at her Servant's attempt at hiding.

Arihiko merely stared and let out a small squeak as he tightened his hold on Miyu's small hand. He immediately relaxed his grip when he realized that he was doing it more for his benefit than for his sister.

'Something is even odder with this guy than the other freaks in this place.' Arihiko darkly thought. The persistent static that he kept hearing around Iskander, which wasn't there with the other 'Heroic Spirits', wasn't doing a lot of good for his opinion of the giant.

"Miyu!" The older sibling hissed a bit at the young girl. "Why are you **encouraging** him?"

The sherry eyed girl scoffed. "Grow up, big brother. Iskander-sama would protect us until his dying breath. Right, my liege?" She beamed over at the smashed up car which totally didn't have a Heroic Spirit behind it.

It shook a bit before it was carelessly flung away into a nearby alley. The sounds of cats yowling in surprise rang out from within, but Iskander merely placed his hands on his hips proudly.

"Of course! You two aren't officially registered with the War, so any Magus brought in by the Wizard Marshal and Waver would neutralize your memories without me here."

"...right." Arihiko looked a bit disbelieving of the whole idea, but he didn't have it in him to argue. It seemed that a hellish night in a zombie apocalypse made a believer out of anyone. "I'm still sort of not comfortable with the whole idea of memory wiping..."

"Oh, just think of it like putting your brainmeats in a ...coffee mug of bleach." Iskander idly replied. He stroked his beard with pleasure. "Yes, that's an appropriate level of jargon to explain it to you, I believe!"

"That's even worse!" Arihiko blurted, looking frightened of the notion. Then his eyes widened and his lips compressed in a thin line. "Hey! You don't need to dumb yourself down for me!"

Miyu broke out into a hearty laugh at their antics. She let out a deep sigh she had been holding as her body felt much lighter than it had been before.

"Come on, you two! We still need to try and find some survivors." Miyu was stopped from walking forwards by Iskander's arm, which was suddenly held in front of her. The dark haired girl owlishly stared at the strong hand for a few moments before she looked up at Iskander. He shook his head, confusing Miyu further.

"Master, now that you found me." He ignored her answering smirk – glad he had been able to make her smile with his act. "I won't have you and your brother walking around these dirty streets." Iskander raised his hand before either of the Inui could speak as he invoked one of the lesser powers of his Reality Marble.

The air behind Iskander rippled. Arihiko briefly winced as a pulse of static hammered his mind, but it vanished as a majestic steed, a beautiful beast that was surely at the peak of horses, calmly walked through the ripple and out onto the street.

It's dark mane was glossy under the light of the sun as it let out a loving call towards Iskander. "Well met, Bucephalus." The giant smiled as he reached forwards and gently ran his hands along its flank. A saddle was already on the war steed's back, large enough for a man like Iskander, and definitely enough for the siblings to sit on.

"Look at that horse..." Miyu gasped in wonder, eyes shining as the horse let out another soft neigh.

"That horse is amazing." Arihiko grudgingly allowed.

Iskander grinned at the two of them. "I'm afraid to say it doesn't taste like raisins."

* * *

><p>A pair of men observed the trio as they made their way down the streets.<p>

One of them, a dark haired man, sighed as he lowered his binoculars from his eyes. He was dressed in a casual light jacket and slacks. "He's still as blatant as always." Kiritsugu Emiya, former Master and temporarily defacto leader of the group of Fifth War Masters and Servants, sighed.

The second man with him, dressed in an ill fitting button shirt and long track pants and with bright blue hair, merely peered at the retreating group with his sharp eyes. "I don't know. Something can be said about not hiding like cowards." Lancer gave a sharp, but otherwise humorous, look over at Kiritsugu.

"Look, we just have to obse-"

"If he's ...what? A possible threat?" Lancer's humor faded a bit. "He fought besides us just a few hours ago and he didn't stab us in the back when we were up to our elbows in freaky worm zombies. I doubt he'll do anything now."

Kiritsugu sighed. "But the Grail can only summon seven." He repeated his claim to the hero besides him.

"You and I both know the Grail was fucked up beyond belief at the end. That girl and her brother are magi, it could have responded to them." Lancer lightly tapped on the tiles of the roof they were standing on. "...still, she doesn't have a Command Spell." He sighed as he leaned back from where he had been intently peering over at Iskander.

"So we have to sit back and observe." Kiritsugu triumphantly stated. "At least until we can confirm if they're friend or foe."

Lancer merely groaned.

* * *

><p><em>Wise Up!<em>

A New Master Is Not You!

Zepia Eltnam Oberon

[The Night of Wallachia]

There's...something wrong with the system. I seem to be getting the impression that the Grail has chosen a new Master, but this information...

It can't be real. Vampires? In this day and age?

It was something to see ancient information from Jeweled Sword Zelretch, but...

Sorry about that lapse in judgment. I was up to my neck in chaos the last time, and not knowing – or rather, sticking my head in a hole didn't do me any favors.

Zepia – no, The Night of Wallachia by this point – is an incredibly powerful vampire. The shard of the Grail doesn't have much to say about him. His personal history was annihilated by his own hand when he changed himself into a vampire.

He's strong, Shiki. Super strong. Worse still is that I can't read much about him because Avenger has a firm grasp of the shard that's being drawn to Wallachia.

Damnit, if I could only get through to Fuyuki...


	6. Chapter 6

Tsukihime is the property of Type-Moon. Melty Blood is the property of Type-Moon and French-Bread. Melty Blood Act Cadenza is the property of Type-Moon and Ecole Software. All additional references and parodies belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 5: Complications

'How detestable.' Caren's nose twitched as she descended to the depths of the Church basement. 'I can still faintly smell death down here.' She thought, passing by the emptied out catacombs as her hackles rose in response to the evil that had soaked the walls.

With the arrival of their guests from the Mage's Association, the source of Gilgamesh's prana had to be discretely destroyed.

Caren's body began to ache. The remaints of desperate wishes for salvation and intense agony down here were enough to have birthed a Demon. The white haired woman once again wondered how her father had managed to keep the situation from escalating.

She had already had a close look at what a Demon could do if it was unleashed last night.

Gilgamesh looked up with a haughty expression on his face as she exited the catacombs. The blond was clad in his golden armor while he reclined on a couch in the living quarters that had been set up in the underground caverns.

Unfortunately for Caren, her father seemed to be towards the back of the room, carefully inspecting their two new arrivals.

"Woman, entertain me." Gilgamesh demanded, crimson eyes narrowing as he kicked off his armored feet from the table in front of him to lean towards her. To her shame, the way his eyes roved along her body's curves beneath her robe actually intrigued her. "Well, as much as a low bred creature such as yourself can, at least."

'Lord, he does not know any better.' The nun wet her lips, slightly nervous with the hawk eyed look that Gilgamesh was giving her. She reached both of her hands together in front of her chest, in a combination of a prayer and an attempt to begin to undo the clasps on her robes.

However, her father was at their side.

Kirei Kotomine's hollow eyes gazed at the tableaux for a few moments before he cleared. "Caren, report." The priest calmly spoke up as he dismissed Gilgamesh's action.

"Tch." Gilgamesh snorted, glancing away from Caren. Annoyance bubbled up within him, but he distantly recalled that the woman had gone up to find out about the situation. "It'd better be good." He growled threateningly, but his voice lacked the surety of death in it.

Caren felt unbridled relief, mixed with a trace of disappointment, when Gilgamesh's sharp eyes left her. She dropped her arms to her sides as she stepped closer to Kotomine's side of the room, passing Gilgamesh. "Yes. The Mage's Association has arrived in force to cover things up. Like you predicted, they've spent all of their efforts erasing the memories and never noticed the changes you made last night." Her lips quirked upwards slightly as she offered her father a sincere smile.

Kotomine expression remained neutral as he nodded, acknowledging her words as he walked towards her. Caren's smile faded a little as she took a step back to allow her father to brush past her. The priest calmly moved and sat down at a seat in front of Gilgamesh.

"Oh, finally taking a seat, are you?" Gilgamesh sneered a little. "Deign to sit with the King after you've spent the last two hours wasting your prana, and even a little of my potion of immortality on those mongrels back there?"

"You still have enough prana to refill the potion." Kotomine smoothly replied. "Both of their bodies demand too much prana to function normally. Your potion will allow them to exist past the night."

Caren felt a flash of irritation fill her. Her gaze went to the back. A comatose blue haired teenager was as still as death as he laid beneath the covers of her father's bed. On a table that had been dragged to the back rested a wicker basket with a visibly cleaved apart blanket wrapped around the child within.

"Father, why did you want to retrieve them?" Caren hesistantly asked.

"They deserved to live." Kotomine calmly responded. A strange half smile crossed his face. "It would be a grave sin to allow the crippled and unloved to die."

Gilgamesh snorted. "My, what cheek. A mouse dares nurse a serpent back to health." When Caren focused on Gilgamesh again, he gave her a toothy grin. "Then again, if that same serpent were to rid the useless mice, perhaps the world might become a better place."

Caren felt a shiver run down her back.

Kotomine let out a soft chuckle. "Perhaps that's the case." His eyes sharpened when he glanced at Caren. "Continue with your report, Caren."

"Yes, father... one of the Magicians was seen in the area..."

Gilgamesh's haughty expression cracked as an intense look of interest entered his eyes. He nearly spilled his drink as he turned towards Caren. "Who was it?" The Heroic Spirit's demand, and almost crushing sense of will, nearly mde Caren collapse as it was trained on her.

"W-wizard Marshall..."

"Do not test the patience of your betters." Like a light switch being flipped, Gilgamesh's expression soured as he took another drink from his goblet. Once he finished with his drink he sneered at Caren. "Explain yourself clearly from the beginning."

Kotomine frowned. For a moment, Caren's spirits were raised as the thought of him coming to her defense came to her.

"I almost wish it was Blue too. At least you have experience with her." The priest sighed. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Zelretch is too unpredicable. He could easily undermine all of our work so far if we give him reason to stay."

Gilgamesh brooded. Even with his ability of limited omniscience, the last thing he wanted to deal with was the Second Magic. Zelretch had been the stuff of legends in his era as well.

Caren remained quiet. She left the silence intact until Kotomine gave her a terse nod.

"The Wizard Marshall arrived because Angra Mainyu escaped once Gilgamesh and I accomplished our scouting of the strength of the other Servants." Caren glanced to the distrubingly quiet baby in the back of the room. "It's replicated the other Servants, and escaped the bounds of Fuyuki City..."

As Caren continued to explain, both Kotomine and Gilgamesh suddenly grew intensely interested.

* * *

><p>Night had descended on Fuyuki City, and Zelretch was inspecting the crater that had formed in the lake behind Ryuudou Temple. It was several meters deep, and had a deep crack in the center from where Angra Mainyu had escaped.<p>

Several patches of the ground had been glassed by either Noble Phantasms or the God himself in their vicinity. The plant life in the area looked brittle and dead as well. The air only had the barest hints of mana to it still.

What a disaster.

"Hm...I'm not sure why you're bothering me, but I need concentration." Zelretch cooly spoke back to Rin Tohsaka, who had been focusing on him for the last few hours. "You haven't finished your ancestor's homework assignment yet. Have your descendants contact me when **they** can produce my sword."

Rin, who had been hiding behind the trunk of a shattered tree, calmly walked out. "I was here, you know." In her hand was the sparkling crystal sword her Archer had sent her, maintained by a steady flow of her own prana.

Zelretch rolled his eyes as he knelt down by a particular patch of dirt. "What a very unsubtle attempt at bribery." Faint traces of the Makiri magecraft could be felt beneath the aged Magician's hands. How had Zouken managed to fuse his very soul to the god? "I award you one out of a hundred points for managing to work past my dimensional barriers with the sword, though."

"It was hard work..." Rin began, feeling a bit lighthearted.

"...working out how to trigger the spell my apprentice installed on it." Zelretch continued, sucking the wind out of Rin's sails. "So, what have you to say?" He wondered, straightening up and looking every inch the slaughterer of Gods as he turned his sharp eyes on Rin.

"I..." Rin trembled a little before the man's scrutiny, but her expression firmed. "I want to make a trade."

"Hoo...?" Zelretch gained a dark look on his face. His fangs, revealed as he grinned, gleamed in the light of the moon that had risen high above. "Faust regretted engaging in deals with Mephistoles, you know."

Rin's nails broke the skin of her palm as she gestured with the crystal sword. "Archer...Shirou...I want them back." Her throat felt raw and dry as terror filled her as Zelretch's eyes flashed.

"My apprentice is already dead." Zelretch's voice was deceptively gentle. "He willingly gave his life when he saved my granddaughter."

"H-he's alive! Saber still feels her tie to Shirou...! I feel my tie with Archer!"

"SILENCE!" Zelretch's voice boomed. The tree behind Rin shattered as the area filled with prana released from the Wizard Marshall.

"A...aah..." Rin's voice came out brokenly as her whole body quaked under Zelretch's terrible gaze.

The Wizard Marshal turned away from her. "I have no time to deal with you, child. Until you can manage to be worth my time, I must focus on what my actions have brought into this world."

Rin trembled with repressed rage, but silently turned and began to descend the mountain side. Zelretch waited a few moments before he drew his Mystic Code out from his robes. The surface of the blade shimmered briefly before a hazy image of another Rin Tohsaka, smiling confidentally at him, appeared within his robe.

"Was that convincing enough?" Zelretch wondered with a faint smirk.

"Perfect." The other Rin nodded with a grin.

* * *

><p>"Shiki, are you sure you don't want to stay at home tonight?" Miyako Arima had been protesting Shiki leaving home for the last two days now. The slim brunette was dressed in a set of button up pajamas as she stood in front of the exit with her arms crossed. A smile broke out across her face. "Why don't you stay here tonight instead? We can practice martial arts and then watch TV together!"<p>

Shiki, dressed in a dark jacket and jeans, sadly shook his head. "You know I can't, Miyako. It's already bad enough that I had to skip going on patrol last night so I could go to school today." The aftermath of the situation with Assassin and Urobuchi had left him drained of all vitality.

Miyako narrowed her eyes. "You swear you're just going to go out for a quick patrol, then?" She murmured. Shiki broke out in a nervous sweat as the nine year old's eyes tried to dissect him apart for any hint of falsehood.

"Just a quick jog. I promise." Shiki grinned. "I'll be back in two hours at most."

"Well...go ahead, then." Miyako pouted as she stepped aside. "But make sure to come back before eleven, okay?"

"Alright." Like always, Shiki felt guilt nip at his heels as he exited the house. It forced him to glance back towards the house, where Miyako briefly gazed out at him from the doorway. Their eyes met for a few moments, but it was over as the girl closed the door shut.

'You know martial arts?' Assassin's voice wondered. 'How good are you?' It was the first time that the spirit had deigned to speak with him today.

'Decent enough to stay in shape, I guess.' Shiki replied. The demon hunter nodded and waved at a few familiar faces in the neighborhood. 'I mostly use witchcraft to modify my body.'

'Nothing more?' Assassin sounded disappointed. 'You won't be a very good vessel for these battles if you aren't stronger.'

The teenager chuckled, 'That eager to start these fights?' He wondered. Once Shiki was out of the small culdasac, he immediately turned and headed in the direction of the Tohno Mansion. 'I know some theory behind stronger techniques, but they need more focus. At this point, the only way I could do them was if I was deep in my combat persona...and well, that just isn't me. Not anymore.'

'...why?'

Shiki glanced back in the direction of his home. 'I can't leave Miyako alone. If I use it, I risk my sanity.' He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I've had to get training from Kohaku-san on how to manage it..."

"Manage what, Nanaya-kun?"

Shiki cursed the slip of his tongue as he looked behind him.

Satsuki Yumizuka offered him a friendly smile, dressed in an brown jacket with a white blouse with a blue ribbon beneath. She wore a set of snug looking jeans and was holding a book bag in her other hand.

"Yumizuka-san..." Shiki awkwardly tried to buy some time.

Satsuki's brown eyes narrowed a little. "You forgot that we were going to have a study session tonight, didn't you?"

'Crap.'

* * *

><p>Akiha sighed as she pushed her chair away from her desk once she finished up her homework for the night. A quick glance at her clock showed that she still had a few hours before it was time to head to bed.<p>

"Not that there's anything to do..." She murmured as she stood, feeling her back pop from how she had hunched over her desk for the last hour.

Dinner had been a quiet affair that night as Akiha had eaten alone. The last two nights, her brother and Kohaku had immediately headed off to the Shrine when she and Hisui had arrived at home.

She felt her stomach rumble hungrily.

Akiha quickly threw on a shawl over her school uniform, feeling too lazy to switch out of it. It wasn't like the temperature could really affect her. 'Maybe I can talk with Hisui-chan for a while?' With that thought firmly in mind, she stepped out from her warm room into the cooler hallway.

With only her footsteps echoing in the mansion at this house, Akiha made her way to Hisui's room. The lack of sounds in the home made the heiress' footsteps heavy as she trodded down empty hallways. Several times she'd peek into a room out of curiousity, but would only be rewarded with an empty bedroom.

'Was it really that terrible for them to work under me?' She sighed, downcast as she knocked at Hisui's room on the other side of the building.

"Hisui-chan, I came to see if you were done with the homework today." Akiha called out. She blinked as her sensitive hearing caught a heavy thump on the other side of the door. Akiha grew faintly alarmed as she heard the sound of heavy breathing and a dragging sound and reached for the doorknob.

The door swung inwards before Akiha could touch the knob. Hisui, looking as unruffled as always, calmly stood in front of Akiha in her maid's outfit. Only a faint sheen to her forehead showed that there had been anything wrong at all.

"Tohn..." Hisui paused and corrected herself before Akiha's stern look. "Akiha-chan, I finished my homework a half hour ago."

"Oh..." Akiha felt a bit dumb at that moment. She rallied for confidence as she continued. "Neither of us have eaten since Kohaku-chan left with brother."

A look of interest entered Hisui's eyes. "I can cook..." She offered.

Terror assaulted Akiha's heart.

"N-no, that's fine." When she saw Hisui's faint look of disappointment, she quickly continued. "We can go out to eat! You cleaned today, I don't want you doing more than your share..."

Hisui's cool look softened. "You don't have to worry about me, To...Akiha-chan. I won't leave you. You don't have to try and treat me with kid gloves."

'It's more that I don't think even my physiology can handle your cooking.' Akiha privately worried even as her answer brought a smile to her lips. "Well, then we should renew the bonds of sisterhood between us!" She cheerfully took Hisui's hands into her own.

A trace of unease entered Hisui's eyes at the contact between her more leathery hands with Akiha's smooth ones, but Akiha squeezed her hands supportively. Hisui glanced past Akiha's shoulder for a few moments as she tried to bring her instinctive reactions under control.

"Can...can we get waffles?" Hisui squeaked out.

Akiha laughed. "Sure. Let's go get waffles." Her blue eyes danced with mirth. "We'll get so many that everyone will regret having quit."

...

"I'd like to get waffles too..." Kohaku murmured as her vision returned to the here and now. The redhead quietly observed the last of Shiki's equipment be moved into position by several of the former staff members of the mansion. They robotically moved away to stand at attention besides the exit of the large workshop.

Bubbling beakers, modern laboratory equipment, and towering computer servers clashed with pentagrams, containers filled with organs, and musty old books of magical lore were observed from Kohaku's perch overlooking it all from a metallic suspension bridge that led to the very top of Shiki's Mystic Code.

Kohaku sighed as she pushed away from the railing she was leaning on. She glanced at the clipboard in her hand and wandered over towards the pulsing and throbbing tower of flesh and bone in the center of the room.

Several lines were running from the monstrousity to several of the computer servers along the walls, and a vine like network of power cables were feeding the creature energy at the base. She wished the whole damn thing would die so they could get to building something cleaner, but until it did she'd have to play nursemaid for it.

'Hurray.' The redhead rolled her golden eyes.

…

Shiki calmly through the hallways of Shrine. Behind him, three of his guards were hauling in an unconscious man between them as they went to the Collection's chamber. The faint smell of blood from the walls let him know that Kohaku was flushing out the day's intake from his Mystic Code two stories above.

'Heh. She's late by a few minutes.' Shiki wondered what had distracted her this time. Once he arrived at the heavily armored doors, he reached into his suit and drew out his ID. With a casual swipe, he opened the doors after the magnetic locks released.

Within the room, the scent of blood slammed into Shiki and the humans with him as a fifty by fifty foot room opened before them. The walls of the room were lined with the unconscious bodies of several humans within reinforced capsules. They had all been stripped down, and strapped so they couldn't move, but occasionally they'd jerk.

Shiki imagined that it was because of the blood being extracted from them from the syringes embedded in their pallid bodies. As the teenager moved deeper into the room, he felt his hunger try to return, but he used his force of will to keep it at bay as he led his guards to the right tube. It wasn't like they could think for themselves enough to get the body to the right place.

They passed by several beeping tubes. Each of them had monitoring equipment built into the front of them to read the lifesigns of the individual within the tube. Eventually the group arrived at one of the tubes in the back of the room.

A low, steady droning noise and the still body within were quickly and efficiently removed by one of the guards while the other two stripped off the ratty, threadbare business suit of the man they had brought into the room. The sedatives that Shiki had given the man began to wear off at that point and he began to dazzedly glanced around.

Shiki patiently waited.

The man gagged and let loose a stream of vomit as the smell of the room and sight of the dessicated body being removed from the capsule hit him at once.

The corpse dripped some foul substance from where it was lying on the ground as his guard removed the syringes from its back.

Shiki's nose wrinkled as he took two steps back. He didn't need his shoes stained at the moment.

"I'm sorry. I was hoping the sedative would have lasted longer." Shiki began. The man that had been brought in was visibly trembling from the cold at this point. "I was hoping you'd stay awake during thi needlessly fussy part." The teeanger continued.

The man flinched as the coffin let out a hiss as Shiki's guard loaded a fresh set of syringes into the coffin to replace the used ones. "T-t-this isn't what I agreed upon!" He stammered.

Shiki waited a few moments – best give them a chance to...

"You lied to me!"

...get it out of their system.

"No, this is what you agreed upon. You said you'd be a blood donor for the period of one month. In return, we wipe out your gambling debts." Shiki reasonably replied. "You know that you'd be constantly giving blood. This is just the way we do this here."

"B-but that'll kill me!" The man shrieked, gesturing wildly down at the corpse.

"Ah...well, his body got too used to the chemicals."

"What?"

Shiki smiled at the man's dumbfounded stare. "He was a repeater." He explained. "Wound up being bleed dry faster than our chemicals could replace them." Shiki calmly patted the stunned man on the shoulder. "But you, you have a family, right? You won't amass such a debt in the future again. I have all the faith in the world in you."

The man's gaze snapped away from the corpse to stare at Shiki in shock.

Both men's gazes met for just a moment.

"R-right..." The man hesistantly replied.

'So easy to affect their desires.' Shiki almost laughed as he finished enhancing the man's familial love to overwhelm his own sense of survival.

"Just don't get your nose dirty again and we won't have this problem." Shiki crossed his arms as he authoratively gestured at the capsule. "Well, not that you'll remember all of this when you're done with your stint."

"O-of course..." The man nodded. "Thank you, sir." It was a small mercy, in his opinion.

"Good. Now, just let these nice gentlemen get you loaded in the capsule and we'll see you in a month." Shiki breezily replied as he turned and began to walk away. He distantly heard the man stutter out another thank you, but the teenager was already busy checking out the back of the room.

The Shrine had been an underfunded and grossly inefficient project when Shiki had taken it over when his father had died. At the time he was still the acting head of the family, and all of his remaining relatives had tried to pressure him into selling the property to another company so they could finish construction.

Shiki had decided to use it as a pet project instead.

'I wonder if Akiha would have sold it?' He wondered as he approached a few panels in the back of the room. Shiki reached for a control panel and swiftly entered a passcode. He was rewarded with a portion of the wall sliding open.

"Hi, bastard." Shiki cheerfully greeted the severed head of Makihisa Tohno, fused into the base of the tower of meat and sinnew. Makihisa's head jerked slightly, and his tongue came out from between his ravaged lips as it glassy gray eyeballs reacted to the light. "I came to visit you again. How are my uncles doing?"

Makihisa drooled on himself.

"Hm. Doesn't sound good." Shiki warmly replied. He could hear the pipes behind the walls funneling blood into the growth in front of him. "You're not acting very perky today." He thought. "Maybe I should help you out a bit."

He reached his hand and lightly set it down on Makihisa's grey skull.

Moments later, the dim room was filled with the roar of lightning as Shiki poured his magic into the tower, activating the magic circuits from dozens of slaughtered Tohno Branch Heads. They let out a chorus of shrieks of horror from behind the walls as the energy briefly brought them back to a state of sentience.

The loudest wails were Makihisa's own.

'Oh yes, Araya Souren's construction methods just can not be beat.' Shiki thought with a wide grin as he continued to pour his lightning into his Mystic Code.

* * *

><p>The cheerful jingle of the convenience store's door caused Shiki to glance back as Satsuki exited the store. In her hands were two slim cans of coffee. She casually handed one to Shiki, who had been looking out at the slow foot traffic on the other side of the street the two were hanging out near.<p>

"Thanks, Yumizuka-san." He popped open the can and took a sip of the drink. Shiki's eyes bugged out as he glanced at the can, marveling at the flavor.

Satsuki allowed a rare grin to cross her lips . "Good stuff, right? I ran into it when I was cramming for our last test." The brown haired girl took a sip of her own as she awkwardly moved to stand across from Shiki.

"Have a seat." Shiki shifted a bit, opening up a spot next to him on the railing he was sitting on. Satsuki hesitated for a few moments, but moved to squeeze next to him on the rail. The two of them silently drank their drinks as cars passed on the street behind them, lighting up the night as they moved past them.

The low wail of an ambulance echoed down the streets.

The moon appeared from behind a thick collection of clouds.

Shiki figured it was about two weeks for a full moon.

"You can't do this forever, Nanaya-kun."

"I know."

Both of them took another sip of their drinks.

"Does Miyako-chan still have nightmares?" Satsuki's voice was gentle. Up until recently, he hadn't really know the awkward class representative had that side to her.

"Yeah." Shiki was grateful that Kohaku had let him know about the fates of the other Tohno Branch Heads. The teenager had requested that the Arima's remains be burned. Shiki would have never been able to bring Miyako back together if her parent's graves had been violated.

Another comfortable silence descended on them.

Shiki counted the stars while Satsuki swung her legs back and forth.

"I can lend you my homework to copy it, but you'll have to make sure to change some stuff." Satsuki decided.

"Yumizuka-san..."

Satsuki ran her fingers along the rim of her can. "Hey, Nanaya-kun...how long have we known each other?" She wondered.

Shiki cast his memory as far back as he could. "A few years now." He replied, not really sure exactly how long, though.

"We never really talked a lot until recently, have we?" Satsuki murmured. She stopped moving her legs as she briefly glanced at Shiki.

"...yeah, that's true." Shiki guiltily allowed. He couldn't quite bring himself to look at Satsuki's face, so he focused all of his attention on the foot traffic on the other side of the street.

"Hey, do you think we could..." Satsuki began to speak, but she stopped as Shiki froze up.

A look of profound horror was on Shiki's face, disturbing Satsuki enough to glance in the same direction that the young man was looking.

A gorgeous woman with long blonde hair, dressed in a white sweater and long, purple skirt was casually walking amongst the crowd. The strange thing about all of it was that the crowd seemed to part before her even when they couldn't see her.

Satsuki frowned in confusion as she looked over at Shiki, but she couldn't see any hint of desire.

In fact, the fear had been replaced by a look of utter hatred. For a second, she thought she could even see his gray eyes glow blue as the moon shone down on his glasses.

"S-shiki?" Satsuki's voice trembled. She seemingly snapped Shiki out of the dark mood he had gotten into, but his expression had gone cool as he looked at her.

"Satsuki...can you stay home with Miyako tonight?"

"Shiki..."

The schoolgirl felt a cold chill run down her back as Shiki glanced at her with an expressionless face.

"She's a vampire. Just like the one that killed the Arima."

* * *

><p>A pair of young women, one with dark hair and the other with deep purple hair, made their way down an abandoned street.<p>

"Sakura, we can put this off until tomorrow..." The younger of the two spoke up. With her long hair tied up in an economical bun at the top of her head, she was dressed in a black jacket with a brown pinstripe shirt beneath it. She had heavy leather boots with dark leggings and a knee length two layered skirt.

Sakura shook her head. She had changed out of her light pink and pastel outfit to aid the others today. The short haired girl was wearing a light brown scarf around her neck and had tightly buttoned up a reddish brown jacket. Dirty cloth gloves were still on her hands and her skirt reached down to three inches above her own black boots.

"Just look around us." Sakura gestured helplessly around them. "They're all **dead** because of me."

Medusa scowled. "No!" Her squared irises slitting slightly with her displeasure. When she noticed how her voice echoed in the empty neighborhood, her tone softened. "They died because your grandfather was a petty, pathetic man..."

"...he wanted me back." Sakura softly insisted. "If I hadn't run..." She suddenly jerked in place as she was stopped.

Medusa continued holding Sakura's hand as she remained standing behind her. "You didn't do anything wrong." She hissed. "Never blame yourself for this..."

Sakura stayed silent.

Medusa sighed and let go of Sakura's hand. The shorter girl started pacing ahead, leaving the Gorgon to brood for a few moments before she followed after her Master. The two girls silently plodded along the cracked and broken streets.

The darkness that surrounded the two was all consuming. Only the distant industrial lights that the Fujimura Family had set up in strategic locations throughout town provided the barest hint of illumination beyond the light of the moon above.

The gravel beneath their feet loudly crunched.

The distant sounds of construction began to grow muted as they walked up the curving streets towards the ruins of the Matou home.

Occasionally, Sakura would pause as her eyes would turn towards one of the neighboring houses. She'd spend several minutes simply gazing at the building as she recalled half remembered glances of the people going into and out of those houses.

Medusa remained behind Sakura all this time. Her own sense of shame preventing her from standing next to her Master. Instead she focused on the shadows being cast out by the buildings. In her mind, she could almost imagine them trying to claw at her for her own part in the affair.

'Yes...maybe I was the one who was at fault.'

An hour was spent in reflection by the two of them as they paid their respects on their way to the annihilated mansion. The Matou ruins were a detestable thing. Even with them charred down to cinders and most of those blown away by the wind or knocked down in the earthquake that followed, there were still a few stubborn pillars.

Those broken things were like claws, trying to claw towards the skies above. Like the home's Master, it refused to completely fall like the other buildings had.

Sakura gazed upon the building for a few moments before she reached into her jacket and drew out one of several pearls. She had found them in the ruins of the Tohsaka home. The stone had never been used since it had once been a part of a necklace her mother had owned. "Medusa, come here." The wind howled, whipping the girl's dark hair about her face as the Gorgon stepped up next to her.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Medusa questioned.

"Sakura Matou is dead." She replied as she rolled the pearl around in her gloves. "There's only Sakura Tohsaka now."

"I see..."

Sakura grasped Medusa's hand with her own as she triggered what remained of the alterations that Zouken had given her. She bit back a yell as she felt an intense pain clutch at her heart. Medusa seemingly caught onto her plight, but Sakura gave her a steady gaze to prevent her from breaking the link as her circuits drew in the Gorgon's prana.

Sakura removed her gloves as she began to channel the energy into the pearl in her hands. When the main of using a sorcery trait that was no longer hers assaulted her body, she merely grit her teeth all the harder.

The pearl shattered from an excess amount of prana, but that was fine. Even as the divinely aligned energy purified the area around them a little, she learned a little bit about how much she could put into the gem.

She had several more pearls to go through.

Sakura would be the one to finish tearing down this ruin with her own hands.

* * *

><p>A crackling fire warmed the knight's bodies as they huddled around it. Several tents had been assembled and set up around the clearing they had made in the forest. The knights themselves lounged about the camp site, eating their dinner and conversing amongst themselves.<p>

Sion sat a bit away from the main group, poking at her own tent, which looked like it was about ten minutes from collapsing on itself. She jealously compared it to the other tents in the clearing, but stamped down on her frustration.

The young woman's stomach grumbled hungrily, but she stoically ignored it as she glanced over at the tent instructions. The paper had been crumbled a few times out of annoyance, but the instructions could still be made out.

Sion reached for her tent to try and redo it again.

"Hey! Can I join you?" Riesbyfe's voice called merrily out behind Sion.

The alchemist let out a shriek of surprise as she tumbled forwards and into her tent, knocking it and the pegs completely down. The knights that had been observing began to cackle as Riesbyfe yelped and set down her tin tray and cup as she moved to help the struggling alchemist out of the cocoon she had wrapped herself up in.

"Shut up! If you have time to laugh then you have time to come help!" Riesbyfe angrily shouted over at the knights. A few of them grew chided enough to come over and help the woman pull Sion out of the tent.

The alchemist flushed bright red as she stumbled away from Riesbyfe and the knights. "I-I can do it myself, you know!" She stuttered. Riesbyfe and the other knights shared a glance amongst themselves, and they subtly pushed the silver haired woman forwards.

"Look, Sion. I know you're used to..."

Sion trembled a bit. "Don't." Frustration and embarrassment warred within her. "I'm the Vice-Director of Atlas! I can do something like set up a tent by myself..." She snapped as she reached forwards and snagged one of the tent's pegs from a knight.

"Miss Atlasia..." The knight flinched in surprise.

"We're not trying to make fun of you." Riesbyfe began, reaching a hand out to Sion. "You're just used to things being different, right? It's okay to rely on us. We all had to start somewhere, right?" She offered Sion a faint smile.

Sion's harsh expression faded. Guilt bloomed within her as she opened her mouth to speak.

"I think we might have to ask Atlas for a refund when this mission is over, though." A boisterous knight near the fire pit teased.

Sion's expression instantly hardened.

"Believe me." Sion frostily replied. "The Giant's Pit will make sure to honor the terms of the contract that the Church has acquired. Then I will personally make sure that there is one less contract in this world."

Riesbyfe grew alarmed as Sion spun in place and marched out of the clearing.

"Mallory, you unrepentant asshole!" The knights that had been helping set up the alchemist's tent paused and began shouting over at the red haired man. To his credit, the knight looked horribly embarrassed as he was hammered with complaints.

"Hold up, Sion!" Riesbyfe rushed off after the alchemist. "You can't go out alone like that!"

"Stridberg! Catch!" One of the knights quickly reached to his hip and unlatched a weapon from his side before tossing it out to Riesbyfe.

"Thanks, Ralph!" The chain whip, coiled up and tied down with a sealing ward, was easily caught by Riesbyfe as she rushed off after Sion along with two more knights.

* * *

><p>'Why was I so stupid?' Sion thought as he vaulted over a snarled up cluster of roots. Distantly behind her, the alchemist could hear the shouts of the knights as they looked for her. 'Why did I dare try to forget who had raised me?'<p>

"I'm such a stupid disciple." She moaned as she walked up to a giant tree and gently tapped her head up against its thick trunk. The alchemist had been told from the start that she had to make sure to stay her distance from the others. The Seven Sacred Contracts that Atlas had made allowed the persons that currently owned them to demand any kind of tribute from Atlas if their representatives ever were found wanting.

'Here I go, screwing everything up on my first time outside. What a great impression I'm making.' Sion clenched her eyes shut. 'I should have used my Etherlite. Then at least I could just fake it.'

Why hadn't she done that? It would have been so easy if she just plucked the knowledge on how to rough it from the knight's heads. They wouldn't of even noticed it either...

Sion's thoughts were broken as her body's temperature suddenly plummeted. The alchemist let out a gasp of shock, and her breath visibly appeared as her breath hit the frigid air that had suddenly covered the area.

Sion clutched at her coat, tightening it around her body in shock as several trees less than a mile away from her collapsed, sending up a giant plume of white powder in the air. "Snow...?" Moments later, flakes of it began to descend from the rapidly graying skies above. "How can it come so..."

A bestial roar split the night as more trees were loudly annihilated in a direct path to the camp.

"Oh no!" The alchemist gasped as she began to run back the way she had come. The forest blurred around her as she made an all out dash. Low hanging branches and bushes were shredded to bits as she unleashed her Etherlite from the golden bracelet around her wrist.

The silver string flashed as it tore into the obstacles in her path. Those that she didn't have time to cut through she simply dodged. The alchemist tumbled and rolled through the air as she finally came back down on Terra firma before breaking out in another dash.

The alchemist briefly glanced in the direction of the shout and saw Riesbyfe pulling up even with her. Sion quickly retracted the Etherlite back into her bracelet for safekeeping before the knight could spot it.

"Duck!" Riesbyfe shouted as she ripped off a paper from a coiled up chain in her hands. Sion instantly turned her dash into a slide as a giant creature dove over Sion from her blind spot, ineffectually trying to claw at her.

Riesbyfe spun the chain whip out and launched the spiked tip of the weapon straight at its chest. The beast, a bipedal ape with wickedly long fangs and an elongated face, let out a shriek as the tip of the whip slammed into its chest, staining its white coat as it gorged it. The spiked sphere in its chest wetly popped out of its chest as it collapsed on the ground.

"Thank you..." Sion dusted snow off her coat as she stood up with Riesbyfe's help. "I really appre-ngh!"

Riesbyfe pulled her fist back from Sion's gut. The alchemist let out a low pitched wheeze as she glared at the knight with shocked eyes.

"That's for being a dumbass." Riesbyfe smartly replied. Her expression warmed up as she offered Sion her hand. "This is to show you that you're one of us."

Before Sion could react, another tree loudly crashed nearby. The shouts of more knights could be heard in the distance.

"C'mon, brainac." Riesbyfe helped straighten Sion up. "We can't dawdle."

Sion merely stared at Riesbyfe for a few more moments.

"Do you have a weapon?"

Sion slowly shook her head. The Etherlite was more of a tool for her than a weapon.

"Tch. They don't give you guys anything before throwing you out here, do they?" Riesbyfe paused for a moment before handing the chain whip over to Sion. "Here, use this. You know how to use a whip, right?"

"Yeah..." Sion thought about her experience controlling her Etherlite.

"Good enough for me." Riesbyfe cracked her neck as she rolled her shoulders. Her fists clenched together. "Still...what a horrible night to get attacked by a curse." With that, she began to run in the direction that the others had been fighting.

"W-wait up!" Sion called out as she rushed after Riesbyfe.

* * *

><p>Consumption. Hot blood rushes down the gullet.<p>

_Fate lines recorded and uploaded into Night of the Blood Lair. Error ratio 2.381#ztck!_

"'I pledge my life in service to God's Will. No inhuman being shall escape my sight...'"

Raw genetic materials are absorbed. They will be the fuel to power the transit to the next destination.

"Those damn, dirty apes are swarming us! You're not going to take us dow-!"

_Warning! Warning! Incoming life form! _

The great gears that were churning within Zepia's mind ground to a halt.

_Life form unknown._

"**I ask of you: Are you my Master?**"

_Warning! Warn-_

* * *

><p><em>Wise Up!<em>

True Ancestors: They Scoff At Your Reality And Substitute Their Own.

I still don't understand why you're taking it upon yourself to do this, but I'll help you as much as I can. Remember that earlier lecture I gave you on the source of all Vampires after I told you about Zepia, Tohno?

Yeah. About Type-Moon.

Well, I have some good news and bad news. Kaleidoscope, that is – Old Man Zelretch, Magician Supreme, was able to destroy the most powerful of all Vampires ages ago. Which is a good thing – we don't want moons being dropped on us, I'd think.

I don't think we could ever make a big enough drill to break through it.

Anyway, the big bad Vampire was annihilated a long time ago, but he left behind his descendants to rule over humanity. These were called "True Ancestors". They're basically extremely powerful Nature Spirits.

How powerful? Well, the Heroic Spirits we're dealing with could probably be defeated by the True Ancestors without breaking a sweat.

...

So, yeah.

They also have a very powerful form of reality manipulation called "Marble Phantasm". If there's even a slim possibility that something will happen, they can enforce that probability. It's got limits when they're smack dab in the middle of a city, but...

Well, they can go "It's possible for there to be a vacuum, right? So, _let me make a vacuum right next to your head_."

You're going to have to take her down and fast.

Shut up, Assassin. I don't mean it that way.

It's the worst kind of rules lawyering since the GM is on their si...what? You don't know what I'm talking about? Hmph. Well, screw you, you prehistoric man. I'll be here being **awesome **as I roll up my Arturia sheet-

Wait. Is...is she laughing at us?


	7. Chapter 7

Tsukihime is the property of Type-Moon. Melty Blood is the property of Type-Moon and French-Bread. Melty Blood Act Cadenza is the property of Type-Moon and Ecole Software. All additional references and parodies belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 6: A cat and a vampire

* * *

><p><em>Miyako was shoved up against one of the corners of their hallway by her mother. She was currently screaming gibbering cries of terror as the three glassy eyed pale corpses tore her father apart like a pack of jackals. <em>

_On the ground between Miyako and her mother, and the group of corpses, was a cellphone. As his last act, her father had tried a desperate dash to the coffee table in the living room. Unfortunately for him, the corpses were faster. _

_Even now, Miyako's sharp ears could faintly hear that it was dialing out. The dust bunnies that had been agitated from their eternal rest in the corner descended on Miyako, making her nose itch and the urge to sneeze great._

_Her halting breath made her mother begin to gibber even louder as she tried to force Miyako into becoming one with that corner of the hall. Miyako wondered how frightening it must be to be the only thing standing in the way of such terrible monsters. _

_Sometimes she wondered if her mother should have ran, leaving her alone... but Sacchin and her big brother simply held onto her tightly for the next few hours after she worded such thoughts. It was best for everyone involved if she just stayed quiet._

_Like she had at that time._

_Simply staring as her father was reduced to nothing different than the meat sold at the butcher's store._

_At one point, she felt her arm get jerked, nearly popping it out of its socket as her mother slammed open the door to her big brother's bedroom. The lock to it shattered before her mom's determination, but unfortunately that made it easy for one of the corpses – an elderly looking lady in an old fashioned, ratty dress – to follow after them._

"_Get out, Miyako-chan! Find Shiki!" Her mother, Emiko Arima, was resplendent to the young girl. Her green eyes shone with the fierce strength of a wild animal and her profile was more noble than anything she had ever seen. _

_In that moment, her mother, was glorious in Miyako's eyes. The woman threw herself at the corpse, the tips of her hair turning slightly red, buying Miyako time to escape through the window. She desperately rushed towards the window, heart rapidly beating as she did the only thing she had time left to do._

_Miyako threw herself at the window, covering her face with her arms._

_The glass shattered as a scream tore through the night. With a start, she realized it was her own._

"_SHI-"_

…

"-KI!" Miyako woke up with a scream, voice immediately choked off by her desperate attempts to breath. Her chest felt like someone had placed a cold iron vice within it, crushing her lungs between merciless steel. The young girl desperately clawed at her bed's cover as she almost fell off her bed in her desperate attempts to get her breath back.

Moments later, the door to her room swung open, crashing against the back wall as Satsuki rushed into the room. The darkness gave way to light as the older girl flipped the switch next to the door.

"Miyako! What's wrong?" Satsuki demanded, half of a pigtail awkwardly held up by her blue ribbon as she moved next to Miyako's bed. The young girl desperately latched onto the older girl, breathing slowly coming easier to her as her body quaked.

Satsuki's eyes softened as she let herself fall. As soon as her knees hit the carpet of Miyako's room, she felt the young girl's arms immediately latch around her neck. Miyako continued to wheeze into the crook of older girl's neck as Satsuki ran her hands through the girl's hair.

"Where's oniichan?"

The high school girl winced as she felt a few drops of moisture seep onto her neck, but she remained silent as she continued to sooth Miyako. The room was filled with Miyako's harsh gasps and Satsuki's nonsense words as she let Miyako lean up against her.

"I...don't know." Satsuki's answer made the young girl tense. Satsuki bit on the inside of her mouth in self recrimination. She hurriedly moved on before Miyako could slip back into her earlier state of panic. "Don't worry, though! He's fine. He just had to go take care of some business..."

Miyako slowly gazed up into Satsuki's eyes. The two of them traded glances in silence for the next few moments.

'Please don't ask, please don't ask, please don't ask...' Satsuki prayed that Miyako wouldn't pressure her. She would already feel her face begin to heat up slightly from having to lie to the girl.

As she glanced away from Satsuki, the last of her tensed nerves began to bleed away from her. "Did Tohno-sama offer him another job?" She somewhat bitterly asked.

"Of...a sort." Satsuki allowed, words tasting foul to her. However, she had to keep herself committed to the act now that it had gone this far.

"...Tohno-sama is kind." Miyako glanced down at her pajama clad lap, the blankets having been thrown off by her struggles.

Satsuki winced. She really couldn't say anything in response to that, knowing the reasons that Shiki had been forced to miss so much school recently.

Miyako moved out of bed, and took Satsuki's hand before the older girl could speak. "Can we watch the television for a while?" She quietly asked. "I don't want to go back to sleep until I see oniichan again."

Satsuki's fingers entwined with Miyako's as she silently nodded. Miyako smiled at Satsuki after the teenager put her discarded blanket back on top of her bed and led her back to the living room.

"So then, let's see what we can watch." Satsuki began as she sat down on a western couch. A thin blanket and a small pillow had been discarded on the ground in between the television and the seats around it.

Miyako frowned at them, but said nothing about Satsuki's choice in sleeping arrangements. The younger girl crawled next to Satsuki, leaning up against the older girl as she turned on the television with the nearby remote.

* * *

><p>Arcueid finished giggling, eyes twinkling with her mirth as she placed her hands on her hips. "So, did little Altrouge decide to try and be subtle?" She wondered, giving Shiki a friendly smile. "I'm Arcueid. What's your name?"<p>

Shiki took a step back as his danger senses were screaming at him to run and never look back. However, that same sense of danger he had sensed with the Dead a month ago radiated from the innocent looking blonde.

Remembering that time made Shiki grit his teeth, driven by his urge to kill the unnatural thing before him. Assassin's eagerness began to crash against the back of his mind.

'Is this the one? The vampire that caused them to die?' Assassin wondered. Shiki could practically imagine the man perking up. 'She's powerful. We need to go all out.'

"Mou..." Arcueid pouted at Shiki's silence. Her red eyes sharpened as she peered at something past Shiki's shoulders. "Two wraiths inside of a young magus seem a little much, though..." Arcueid shook her head, long hair swaying with the motion.

The presence within Shiki froze.

"Oh, a reaction!" Arcueid clapped her hands.

"What are you doing, idiot?" He hissed. When Shiki glared at her hotly, she merely smiled and gestured around them. The thin crowds were keeping their heads down as they walked around the two of them.

"Don't call me an idiot!" Arcueid shouted, looking offended. "I already took care of them..." She quirked her head at Shiki. "You can talk, though." She sounded like the proud owner of a puppy who had learned to roll over.

Shiki reached for his glasses, but when he did...

Arcueid's red eyes glowed.

"Gah!" His wrist felt like it going to be crushed in an invisible hold. Bones groaned as they were strained almost to their breaking point. His fingertips shook as they brushed up against the side of his frames, but the horrendous power being exerted against that arm prevented him from removing the glasses.

"I studied Japan before I came here." Arcueid began, looking completely composed besides her glowing eyes. "They say that Death walks these lands and that it can destroy you utterly if it casts its gaze on you."

Shiki snarled, but his other arm was locked in place by the same force with another glance from Arcueid.

"I'd rather not risk it, Mr. Mystic Eyes." Arcueid simply replied. Shiki's stunned glance in response made her smile. "Blondes aren't that dumb." She paused a beat. "No! I mean we aren't dumb! Not dumb!" She frantically waved her hands before her.

'I...was defeated by her?' Shiki thought in horror.

'Urobuchi says that she traced us …'

"Hey! I'm talking here!" Arcueid puffed out her cheeks as she glared at Shiki. "You need to pay attention to girls, you know! What kind of man are you?" She leisurely placed her hands behind her head. "Still, you lost before you could even begin. That was pretty sad, Mr. Mystic Eyes."

"My name is Shiki!" He snapped as he tried to push past the bonds holding his arms down. "And my credentials as a man are just fine, thank you very much!"

"So, what were you going to do with that knife if I hadn't stopped you, huh?" Arcueid wondered as she lightly walked around Shiki. The closer she approached, the more his body began to lock up on him as her eyes' inner light began to fill Shiki's world.

Once she arrived at his side, she poked and prodded him at various angles with her hands. "Going to try and carve me up?" Arcueid's touch caused Shiki's blood to try to burn him from within. He let out a hot gasp as his fingers twitched rapidly, shaking his frames up and down his nose. The woman gave him a placid look as she leaned up against him, placing her mouth near his ear.

"I'm not into guro play, sorry." Arcueid impishly smiled into his face. "Fly away, Mr. Mystic Eyes." Moments later, Shiki's whole body was flung high into the air. The further away he rose, the more his body began to respond to his own will.

'_Flowing power of the world, embrace him! Appear before us..._'

Shiki ripped off his glasses from his head and place them in his pocket. Now unsealed, his Mystic Eyes shone a blazing blue, its anti-demon qualities surging through his body as his magic circuits triggered. The remaining paralysis on him was instantly banished as lines broke apart the city that was swiftly rising to meet him.

'_And destroy!_'

Prana surged down his arm and into his knife, held in a loose grasp, the blade sharpened as its ability to cut was reinforced.

'This is what I'm talking about!' Assassin cheered in the back of his head. The spirit's voice strengthened within Shiki's mind as the pair lightly landed on their feet half a block away from Arcueid. He instantly covered half of the distance with three steps – intriguing the blonde a little with the speed he had displayed.

'Her lines...?' Unlike the fractured world around them, Arcueid's lines were thin even with his magic circuits pumping prana within his veins. The shock was enough to make him almost miss Arcueid raise her arm towards him, but his entire body jerked to the side as a swirling blast of wind tore across the horizon.

Assassin's senses, sharpened due to their shared prana, let him see the thin crack that Arcueid's attack had caused on the street behind him.

'Shiki! Trade off control of your body!'

'We can do that?'

'Just do it!' Assassin took over control of Shiki's legs, letting them impressively vault over another swirling blast of air. He immediately handed control back to Shiki, who rolled off to the side as soon as their feet touched the ground.

Arcueid was happily grinning as she continued to project blasts of wind at Shiki, swirling spheres of power that the teenager absolutely refused to allow near him. Shiki moved to hug the ground in his charge, speeding up further as his and Assassin's attempts at dodging were mixed up enough for Arcueid to grow confused.

The blonde's shots began to slow down more as she began to randomly fling larger and larger spheres of air at them. "Hey! What kind of pedophile assassin are you?" Her accusation almost made Shiki trip up, but Assassin was there to salvage them from having their arm broken.

"The hell are you talking about?" Shiki roared.

"Mou...?" Arcueid delicately quirked her head at him like a bird. "My sister didn't offer to make you a knight? Or a contract...?"

"...No!"

"Ah...!" Arcueid slammed her fist into her open palm, generating an unavoidable wall of wind that blew Shiki and Assassin back fifteen feet. "Then you can still be persuaded towards the side of righteousness and full figured women!" She declared joyfully.

'Do it now!' Assassin howled, spotting their opening. Shiki's legs screamed their objection at the duo as they tore across the remaining area in between them and Arcueid. Their knife shone in the moonlight as they raised it.

"_Henshin!_"

But the two were promptly blown away as Arcueid's eyes flashed. Shiki let out a cry of shock as it felt like he had been clipped by a runaway car. The two collapsed on the ground as mana surged towards Arcueid from their surroundings, suffusing her outfit with light.

The massive energy gathering was enough to reach Shirou, who had been viewing the spectacle from Assassin's eyes with horror from the very beginning. '...oh god.' His voice, a very faint and whispery tone in Shiki's mind now, summed up the situation for the three of them very clearly.

Arcueid's outfit released yellow bolts of electricity as it reformed into something...very...skimpy.

A white bodice with golden trim and flared tips over a short purple skirt. Two detached floppy white sleeves. Long white boots that went up to mid-thigh.

Arcueid grinned at the three of them. The golden crescent moon hair pin on the side of her head glowed before it vanished. A small pink heart tipped baton appeared in her right hand.

"This will hurt me more than it will you." Arcueid's full lips pouted. She wiped away an imaginary tear drop from her eyes. "But the most bitter medicine is the one that's best for you!" She set a stoic look on her face as mana surged at the tip of her baton. The area was flooded with pink light. "Goodbye, Mr. M!"

She dropped the baton.

* * *

><p>"<em>Shiki-chan, do you think you can go to the market for me?" Naoaki Arima spoke up after Shiki handed him a towel. Off to the side, a few of the remaining students were volunteering like Shiki, wiping down the ground or putting away the bokken. <em>

"_Of course, father." Shiki's casual answer brought a warm smile from the older man. His own towel was around his neck, soaking up his own sweat. "But are you sure you don't need any help cleaning the dojo up today?"_

"_No ,it's fine. We'll need some more juice. Some octopus as well..." The man began to list the items. A mischievous smile crossed the man's face as he looked down at Shiki. "I'll give you enough so you can buy something sweet for you and Miyako-chan, okay?" _

_Shiki's gaze moved away from his adopted father - a flash of blue from his peripheral vision having caught his attention. _

"_Shiki-chan?"_

_Shiki shook his head and turned back to gaze at his father. "Yes sir!" He sharply nodded. _

"_No need to be so serious, son." Naoaki softly chuckled as he ruffled Shiki's hair. _

_Still, something was bothering Shiki as he walked out of the dojo. A slight edge of trepidation followed him into the house, but it grew even worse once he went into the bathroom to quickly clean himself off to do his errand._

_A cat's call made Shiki look up into the mirror over the sink._

_His own blue eyes, shining brightly, broke the illusion._

…

"What do you mean 'I'm picking on a nice girl's brother'?" Arcueid accused. "I'm the heroine of justice here, Len!"

Shiki silently rose to his feet to the sounds of the blonde arguing with herself. His entire body felt drained of life, barely keeping awake thanks to the shock of how his dream had ended.

A field of purple energy, shaped like some sort of bat, surrounded him. Assassin and Shirou's voices were completely silent, but if he was right, that was probably what had tipped Arcueid off about him in the first place. Every moment he remained in this field felt like an eternity to Shiki.

The blonde had her back to him, fifteen feet away. In her hand, the baton she was waving about was resonating with the field, projecting the same energy that was covering his portion of the street. Shiki readied his knife and narrowed his eyes.

A heavy headache began to pound the back of his head as lines formed around the barrier, one of which was positioned just right.

Shiki let his knife fly with all the strength he had left. The blade, now a silver missile in the night, sliced through the barrier, tearing a small rip through it handily as it sped towards Arcueid.

The blonde's eyes widened and she jerked to the side, saving herself but sacrificing her baton as the knife pierced it right in the heart. With a shriek of surprise, Arcueid dropped it as it detonated in a blast of mana, pushing her back three steps and popping the boundary field that had kept Shiki separated from the rest of the world.

The human collapsed to his knees, coughing desperately as his vision darkened and lightened in time to his headache. Prana surged back through his body, restoring his body's strength within moments as he rose into a combat stance to face Arcueid.

"Huh...you win." Arcueid simply replied, making Shiki almost lose his balance. She crossed her arms in front of her chest with a pout. "Good work, I guess. For a human, I mean." She dragged her boot back and forth across the street.

An awkward silence descended on the two.

"So...want to get some pancakes?" Arcueid offered.

Shiki's continued to stare at her in shock.

"Just kidding."

"What the hell are you?" Shiki wondered. The teenager was warily eying the vampire next to him. Only Assassin's satisfaction with the battle and his own control kept him from trying to have another go at cutting Arcueid into little pieces.

The blonde, smiling next to him – and back in her normal outfit, simply quirked her head at him.

"No, I mean. I came at you with a **knife**."

"Yeah, but Len said you three were okay."

Shiki opened his mouth, but a quiet meow bubbled up from deep in his throat. The demon hunter slapped his hands over his mouth in shock, nearly slicing off his nose with his knife. Arcueid burst out laughing at his expression.

'Possession?' Shiki stumbled back from Arcueid, hackles raised.

'...my bad...' Shirou's voice faintly reached the troubled boy.

'Woah, woah!' Assassin stayed Shiki's arm. 'That's the boss's problem, not yours.'

Arcueid grinned at Shiki. "Sorry, once I heard you guys, I couldn't resist." She placed her hands together. "Forgive me?"

The innocent hope shining from the blonde's red eyes completely popped Shiki's urge to perforate the woman. With a sigh, Shiki sheathed his knife and placed it into his coat pocket. His glasses slipped over his blue eyes, sealing them back to their normal gray hue. Arcueid gained a look of happiness, immediately taking up Shiki's hand and giving it a firm shake.

"Glad to see you have a sense of humor, Mr. M!" Arcueid enthused. "No need for there to be such dark feelings on both side of the fence, right? Just a little duel to the death."

Despite himself, Shiki felt a genuine smile cross his lips. "Right. Just two people trying to murder each other wholeheartedly." He chuckled.

"Eh, Mr. M, why were you trying to murder me?" She idly wondered.

Shiki's arms drew closer to his sides. "No reason." He curtly replied, not wanting to get into this with someone he barely knew.

For a brief moment, Arcueid's eyes darkened a bit as she appraised him. The strange expression was gone before Shiki could even question it, though.

"Well then, I suppose that's that." The blonde mused as the two of them arrived at an intersection. "You're pretty funny, but I got some business to take care of." She smiled. "Take care not to try to bite off more than you can chew."

'Hey, Shiki, you alright with this? She probably knows something about who you're looking for.'

Shiki stayed quiet.

Arcueid turned and began to walk away from Shiki. The teenager waited a few moments, following her back and brilliant hair as she eventually vanished into the crowd.

Shiki sighed, shaking his head. "Well, that was a bust." He rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

'I suppose so.' Assassin replied, sounded a bit put out. 'What do we do now?'

"Let's go back home for now." Shiki yawned. "I'm exhausted." He rubbed at a crick on his neck as he turned and began to head back home. Before long though, a troubling thought from earlier came back to him.

'...I seriously don't have a demon in me, right?' Shiki wanted to confirm. 'Because I **meowed**. That's not normal at all!'

Assassin laughed. 'Just a faker and an usurper.' He energetically responded.

Shiki rubbed the back of his head. "This last month has been messed up as hell. I don't need to break out into purrs on top of it." He grumbled as he tried to stargaze a little on his way back to center himself. His pace slowed down as he tried to pierce the veil of smog in the night sky.

'Want to talk about it?' He continued cheekily when Shiki hesitated. 'Unlike the vampire, I can assure you that I won't be hopping into any other person's head and tell them. I'm a one brain samurai, as you can tell.'

Shiki sighed. Hell, why not?

'Well, alright, then.' Shiki's thoughts felt slightly clipped, turning away from the smog filled skies to focus on his thoughts. 'I had gone out to hang out with Arihiko and Satsuki Yumizuka.' He paused. 'Arihiko Inui, that is. Satsuki, the class rep, and I were trying to pull up the idiot's test scores...'

* * *

><p>"He ditched. Again." Satsuki had a look of dull horror on her expression, arms crossed in front of her chest to try and ward off the harsh realities of life, causing Shiki to wince from his perch on the low stone wall surrounding her house.<p>

The pair of highschoolers were outside her house, Shiki keeping an eye on the streets for a familiar mop of red hair and Satsuki was hammering her house phone's number pad as she kept trying to call the missing person. With each minute, Shiki felt the ominous chill down his spine rising as Satsuki's expression turned grimmer by the moment.

Shiki idly considered fleeing, but decided he couldn't abandon Arihiko to this fate.

It was kind of tempting him, though.

"Maybe he had something important to do with his little sister?" Shiki idly asked as he rocked slightly, sitting on top of his left left and dangling the other in Satsuki's general direction. "Probably that's why he wasn't at school the last three days."

Shiki knew that was a lie, knowing that his friend had decided to go off on one of his little winter retreats. The jerk hadn't even offered to take him along this time.

'Hm...now I really want to ditch him when he gets here.' Shiki idly mused.

From the slight softening of Satsuki's expression, he could tell that he had bought Arihiko a few more minutes before his execution was decided. Still, this was the most emotive that he was used to seeing the girl.

'Arihiko has a gift for pissing people off, I guess.' Shiki's resulting chuckle from that made Satsuki glance over at him curiously.

"Oh, sorry." Shiki waved her off. "I was just remembering something funny."

"Ah..."

"Yeah." Shiki nodded. The silence that fell on the two of them was comfortable for Shiki. The sudden urge to swing by the mansion to see how Akiha was handling taking over his brother's post as heir briefly made itself known, but he remembered Shiki's warnings about how Akiha's final bit of training would cause her blood to be thick enough to affect him for the next few months.

Deciding to just call it half ways, he pulled out his cell phone and snapped a lazy picture of the neighborhood. At Satsuki's alarmed look, he merely shrugged as he began to type in a message. "I figure I can try to message him again." He smirked at her a little. "Maybe he's dodging because he knows he screwed up already?"

Satsuki sighed, shaking her head with annoyance, but didn't reply. Deciding to take that as confirmation, Shiki began to send out a quick message to both Akiha and Hisui along with Arihiko, letting them know where he was out of boredom.

Not even ten seconds passed before he got his first reply.

'Nii-san, I've told you time and again not to wander into those kinds of neighborhoods! Can't you just stay indoors with Miyako-chan? Girls have delicate feelings about those kinds of things...'

Shiki rolled his eyes. Typical Akiha.

"Nanaya-kun, I'm going to go get something to drink. Do you want something?" Satsuki nervously asked Shiki.

"Nah, I'm okay."

The girl looked a bit depressed for some reason, but she headed back into her house. Using the opening, he quickly messaged her again.

'That's pretty conceited to the people that live nearby, Akiha-chan.' He dashed the message with a smile emote and sent it off.

With amazing speed, Akiha's response appeared. Shiki really hoped that things weren't so boring up in the mansion that she was paying this much attention to his bored messages.

'Don't tease me! It's just that there's two new ...guests in the area!' Shiki blinked at the little blushing smiley face along with the typos in the message. He wondered what he gotten her chain rattled, but decided not to make her mood get worse.

'Shiki is still inviting more?' He frankly found it distasteful on the principals his old family stood for. 'I guess the construction businesses must love him for finding all the new families though, huh?'

The flood of messages stopped at this point from Akiha, and a message from Hisui finally appeared. As usual, it was sloppily written, but he was able to decode a message out of the flood of emote icons and typos.

'Shiki-chan, did your test go well? I bet you passed. Akiha-sama is going to give me some time off in a few days so I can go see Tokie-sensei for my treatment. Would you like to meet me at the office tomorrow?'

Shiki was about to respond to the message, but another message – this one from Akiha- suddenly flashed on his screen.

'The Arima are under attack – we're sending agents in. Please help them!'

"Gods..." Shiki stared at the screen with enough intensity to cause it to combust in any other situation. His body began to heat up as incomprehension gave way to the rage he felt creeping up his neck, feverish heat attempting to swallow his brain up with pain .

"Nanaya-kun, I made some lemonade, and I was wondering if you wan-" Satsuki cut herself off with a gasp.

Shiki's eyes shot up at Satsuki in alarm, and for a brief moment he understood why. The reflective surface of his lenses were showing his blue eyes shining back at him.

He could see Satsuki's body, segmented into several smaller sections by thick black lines, taunting him behind the glass for just a few moments before the lines vanished like a hallucination. Or a waking nightmare.

"S-shiki...?"

The teenager sprang to his feet with a curse, spun around, and began to race away from his classmate. Her desperate, entreating cries on his back were shoved towards the back of his mind, along with the sight of those lines and everything else.

Shiki ripped off his glasses, scrapping the skin of his nose and losing his cellphone, with a harsh motion. The teenager had no time to double back to pick up his phone, focusing on trying to stop a disaster in the making.

The teenager's body flooded with energy as he finished his invocation - foot speed dramatically increased as the new found energy from his environment allowed him to tear his way out of Satsuki's neighborhood in record time. Cries of pain and shock rose around Shiki as he began to practically vault towards the Arima's home, smashing aside the unfortunate pedestrians in his path with his body, not trusting himself to use his hands in fear of cutting someone's limbs off now that the lines had manifested themselves again.

What was normally a leisurely half hour trip was reduced to a few minutes.

A small crowd was gathered in front of the Arima home. Several of the nearby houses had their doors open, light flooding out into the dimming neighborhood. For a few moments, Shiki's heart leapt to his throat as the worst of possible scenarios appeared in his mind.

They were blown completely away when he got a good look at one of the things.

Shiki nearly collapsed to his knees. Bile rose up the back of his throat. Staring at him was nothing but Death.

"Ngh...?" He hacked as spittle and a little bit of acid spilled forth from his gullet as a collection of man shaped abominations, bodies covered from head to toe in the lines of death, moved towards him with sluggish movement.

However, even in those horrid bodies there remained a tiny spot of normalcy that Shiki desperately focused on as he drew his knife. That spot, its location differing based on the creature, pulsed with life. The energy of life trailed away to the north, but if he had a guess, it had to be something that Kohaku had informed him about once.

Familiars.

Shiki drew Nanatsu-yoru, his faithful knife slipping into the groove of his hand once again, and focused at his enemies. The monsters sped up towards him, but he was ready, coiled body springing towards the familiars and his knife springing forth in a deadly weave of slashes.

The fuel of life spilled forth, thick and noxious to his nostrils, driving Shiki further into a killing rage as he sprung through the ranks. Everywhere he struck was a killing blow for the teenager, but a vicious hammer blow to his side with monstrous strength was enough to momentarily distract him from the agony that was settling on the back of his head.

'How can they have so much strength?' Shiki thought in shock as he was knocked to the ground. A sharp kick, which removed the bicep of one of the monster's groping arms, bought him a few seconds as he tried to get up. However, the blood that was released from his earlier kick treacherously turned on him, staggering the teenager as he stood up, keeping him unsteady long enough for another blow to be struck.

Feeling his jaw shatter was never a pleasant thing. Blood filled his mouth and heady amounts of pain assaulted him with all the subtlety of a jackhammer to the skull. A manic snort erupted from his nose as he recoiled, barely managing to keep to his feet.

Shiki was sure that it would have been enough force to pop his head off if he hadn't been reinforced. The grim thought of what that would look like briefly flashed through his mind in all of its glorious, rotten glory as he stumbled backwards from the familiar that had attacked, arm still extended in the strike that had nearly done him in while his slashed up fellows hadn't been able to do.

In response, Shiki sprang forwards and slammed his fist straight into a mass of lines on the dead creature's head, releasing more tar onto the streets.

Shiki's forward momentum slowed to a crawl with the monster's brain matter pulped up against his fingertips, but the teenager solved that with a twist of his upper body and flattening out his fist into the shape of a knife. The top portion of the mannequin's head went soaring in one direction as the body dropped to Shiki's feet.

A heady cocktail of biological chemicals were surging through Shiki's veins at this point as he glanced at the direction of the remaining creatures. The pitiful things moaned and mindlessly began to shuffle towards him and Shiki, feeling their tar dripping off his face and lower body merely replied with a vicious grin.

"Nii-chan!" Miyako's wail, mixed with the sound of a cat's cry, was the only thing that snapped him out of his deranged state. Shiki instantly rushed towards the sound of the girl's cry from a half a block away.

The undead rushed to meet his rush with equal speed.

One of the dead brought its arms outwards in an attempt to give him a crushing bear hug, but Shiki sprang up and braced his left foot up against the shirt of the former human. Fabric began to rip as his right heel hooked against the dead man's shoulder, but Shiki didn't care as he used his sheer momentum to spring up into the air using the thing's body as a platform.

The dead crashed down to the ground as Shiki began to rapidly descend, aiming towards another monster. His left foot slammed into the monster's forehead, pressed down into it with enough force to snap the unfortunate creature's neck, and allowed him to leap the rest of the way past the remaining twenty monsters.

Shiki saw a glimpse of Miyako, herded up against the corner of a neighbor's yard by a pair of dead things. She was huddled up in a ball, trying to desperately avoid seeing what was in front of her. His glimpse ended as he landed on the street.

The teenager let his body loosely roll along the cooling surface of the street for less than ten seconds before he began to crawl on his hands and knees. Pain had long since stopped being a factor, both with the adrenaline and his reinforcement, so the rapid fraying of his pants were ignored as he shifted his hands.

His speed increased as he moved on the tips of his fingers and shoes – abandoning his knife at this point and picking up a few stray pebbles. With a roar, he shoved himself up with his fingers, and began to dash the last bit of distance towards Miyako as he vaulted the fence.

Miyako, face bloody and with bits of glass stuck in her raw hands, let out a scream as the dead hissed as they moved towards her. Shiki whipped his right fist out in their direction with all his might – unleashing several stones that whistled as they slammed into and through the undead.

The little girl simply passed out as the majority of their heads simply vanished in a haze of gore. The bodies, no longer sustained by the brain, simply collapsed to the ground like marionettes which had their strings cut.

Shiki continued his dash at Miyako, palming the remaining stone he had in his left fist as he recalled the feline cry. His worry was proven correct as a small tabby cat, with a disgustingly long and ratty looking tail, threw itself at him from the rooftop of the nearby home. The creature's tail ignited in a flaming whip – which the creature swung towards Shiki's face.

The teenager feeling the heated air blast at his face, went into a roll, the smell of burnt hair and a hiss of disappointment lingered in the air. Shiki bounced off one of the perforated bodies of the undead, but came to a halt in front of Miyako.

The smell of urine assaulted Shiki's nose.

Both cat and human came springing back to their feet, Shiki getting his feet underneath him and an arm wrapped around Miyako's slight form awkwardly. Their tense standoff ended when the sounds of blaring horns and the cracks of firearms going off could be heard.

The cat let out a mournful cry before it turned and began to race away. The flames on its tail extinguished themselves, but Shiki's remaining stone soared through the tip of the beast's appendage before it could make a complete get away.

Its cry of pain briefly echoed like a curse before it raced out of sight.

Shiki, feeling his last nerve fail him, collapsed onto his rear as he stared in the direction the cat – nekomata had run off towards. The sounds of the Tohno Family sweepers rushed up to him, each layered on top of the other in an incomprehensible mess as the situation he had gotten into finally hit him.

'Don't Panic.'

The self rebuke forced Shiki's eyes to slam shut as he tried to distance himself. From Miyako, face broken into bloody patches with deathly pale portions that hadn't been stained red; the neighborhood, slashed to pieces thanks to the death lines; and finally the two rotting bodies two feet in front of him.

His breath, harsh and rapid, was the only noise he made.

The sound of crunching footsteps caused Shiki to open his eyes once again.

Kohaku, expressionless and backed up by one of the family's sweepers, gazed down at the meat in front of Shiki for a long moment. "What did they look like to you?" She finally decided to question.

"They were unsightly."

"Hm..."

The man, looking like he was about to be ill, broke into their conversation. "Nanaya-kun, those were...!" He wheezed.

The bottom fell out of Shiki's stomach.

Kohaku gazed away from the bodies and towards Shiki. "Don't do it." She warned, amber eyes glittering.

His left hand shakily reached towards his coat pocket.

"Shiki-kun..."

The Mystic Eye Killers glinted in the night.

"Idiot, help me!" Kohaku hissed over at the stunned agent. He immediately moved with the redhead to block Shiki's view as he donned the glasses, banishing the death lines from the world around them. A wedding band glinted on the mangled hand of one of the bodies.

"...move."

"No. I refuse." Kohaku simply retorted. She and the man with her proved an effective enough blockade with the darkening skies. "Radio for backup. I want those corpses taken away to be burned." She commanded.

"...yes, ma'am." The hired arm reached for the radio on his waist and began to call in their location.

Kohaku silently extracted Nanatsu-yoru from beneath the obi holding her kimono closed. The blade, sticky with blood, was silently wiped up against Kohaku's knees before she offered it towards Shiki.

"This is yours still."

A terrible, unknown fear kept Shiki's words trapped in his throat as he took the knife from Kohaku. The two of them simply remained silent until the bodies had been moved away.

* * *

><p>Assassin mulled over Shiki's story as the pair finally approached Shiki's neighborhood. 'Why are you still living here, then?' He prodded.<p>

'It was a clan of nekomata assassins. They had gotten past all of the security the larger branch families hired and killed their heads. Hell, one even got through a few years ago and killed Makihisa Tohno.' Shiki, thoughts dark even twenty minutes later, responded with the unfiltered truth.

'So no escape.' Assassin sighed. 'What happened to the girl?'

'Kohaku.' Shiki's gratitude could be heard in his tone. 'She's a user of witchcraft.'

Assassin felt vaguely troubled. 'So...she doesn't remember about her parents?' He aired out his grievance.

'It's there. She's just ...detached from those memories. Witchcraft can only modify memories.'

Assassin let out a small noise as he considered this.

'I'd need the help of someone that uses a traditional system to actually erase them, but neither Shiki nor Kohaku can do it.' Shiki rubbed at his chest uncomfortably. 'Until then...she can still remember...'

'And feel them subconsciously, correct?' At Shiki's stunned silence, Assassin quietly continued. 'It's like a magical induced state that you go into to handle your stress in battle. It isn't a long term solution at all.'

Shiki remembered the crash he had felt after coming out of his Nanaya state. He silently agreed with the Heroic Spirit.

'The withdrawn girl knows about our world because of this?'

The teenager walked the final approach to his home.

'No, she started down the path because I dropped my phone," Shiki grimaced as he recalled his own stupidity. 'She harbored suspicions for years, though. I was always a clumsy guy around her.' He shook his head.

'Then what happened...?'

Shiki began to open the door to his house, but the door slid open before he could reach for the door.

"Well, we're sorry to trouble you both." Akiha, clad in a high collared long coat, stood before Shiki. "I'll just see about talking to Nii-san tomo-" She trailed off as her head turned to fully glance at him. Her expression reminded Shiki of a puckering fish, but he decided to keep his thought to himself.

Hisui stood behind Akiha, dressed in a dark sweater with a large white scarf and an ankle length skirt. She raised an eyebrow, but otherwise remained cool under Shiki's sight.

Miyako and Satsuki, both showing slight distress, gazed at Shiki imploringly from over Akiha's shoulder, having moved further down the hall so they could connect their line of sight with Shiki's eyes.

"Nii-san..." Akiha's stunned expression positively melted as delight shone forth from her blue eyes. He rather enjoyed contrast that she now had between her complexion, hair, and eyes.

"Akiha-chan." Shiki greeted the younger girl casually. Just as Akiha's eyes began to narrow with her annoyance, he decided to finish her off in one blow. "Looking as wonderful as always. I like your new look."

'And how I haven't been driven insane by it.' Shiki finished the thought.

'Yet.' Assassin didn't leave well enough alone.

A pink blush crossed her cheeks.

Hisui glanced away.

Miyako looked like she wanted to tear something apart.

Satsuki woodenly turned and marched in the direction of the kitchen.

"Ah...it's decided, then." Akiha cleared her throat, banishing the flush on her cheeks. "You two are coming home with me tonight."

"What." Shiki blurted.

Assassin somehow projected a tangible aura of schadenfreude.

* * *

><p><em>Wise Up!<em>

It is dark.

You are likely to be eaten by an Oni.

Oh? What's that? You need a distraction?

Well, let's me see how the other Masters are doing for you...

* * *

><p>A tall man, with a bronzed complexion that could only naturally be produced in regions further to the south, walked amongst devils. The hulking, furred beasts were manifestations of a foreign folklore that had been imported from Canada.<p>

The howls of the Wendigo brought forth a crushing snowstorm to descend on the city below. Terror began to stir in the hearts of the populace as nature turned on them.

"Now go!" The man pointed a muscular arm in the direction of the community. Its lights began to die out in various portions as the high speed winds knocked down electric poles throughout the town. "Gorge yourselves, feed until you are hungry no more, and return to Master Wallachia so we may travel beyond this land to Misaki – source of our desires!"

The wild beasts let out eager grunts as they began to bound down the hillside to the city.

"And I..." Servant Berserker flexed his neck, popping his joins as he shook his arms to ready himself. "Shall show the knights the error of their ways before I banish them to Tartarus." He grinned, summoning forth a bolt of lightning in his left hand.

* * *

><p>...oh no.<p>

Angra Mainyu did it.

The almighty idiot actually went and copi-ckztttt!


	8. Chapter 8

Tsukihime is the property of Type-Moon. Melty Blood is the property of Type-Moon and French-Bread. Melty Blood is the property of Type-Moon and Ecole Software. All additional references and parodies belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 7: Night of Wallachia I

Arcueid glanced off to the northwest with a pensive look on her expression as she ran her fingers along the fabric of the carpet beneath her. "Something's wrong out there." The blonde spoke up, trying to stare past the wall on the other side of their apartment as she leaned against wall next to the exit of their room.

"What do you mean, you stupid vampire?" Elesia's voice cut through the sound of bubbling liquids as she stepped away from the electric oven. The blue haired woman wiped her hands off on a moist rag from next to the sink before walking up to Arcueid.

Arcueid briefly glanced at Elesia before dismissively looking back in the direction she had been facing.

"Don't ignore me, dammit!" Elesia loudly complained. "I hate when you get like this!"

"It's Nanaya." Arcueid mused, making Elesia freeze up. "Even though he no longer lives with the Tohno, that air of misfortune around him I sensed earlier got stronger all of a sudden."

Elesia froze in front of the oven. "You mean...the wraths, right?" She asked.

"Yes." Arcueid hesitated. "Don't worry. It's nothing like a Demon possession." She hummed. "Or Roa's equivalent."

Elesia turned away from the burning food in front of her. The soup bubbling in front of her was ignored in favor of the vampire, which she pierced through with cold stare. "Still, I don't understand why you'd leave something like that on him." She growled, angry at her long time acquaintance.

"It wasn't harmful." Arcueid drawled. "It was doing the opposite, even. He reacted faster than a normal person should have. Plus his agility was much more impressive when the wraith latched onto him." She sounded a bit confused, feeling like she was lost in an old memory. "Plus...there was something familiar about it."

"Are you sure it isn't this city's boundary field messing with your senses? Even I can't tell up from down in this mess."

"You're going to burn our food." Arcueid's nose wrinkled as she complained.

Elesia gestured back in the direction of the stove. Her magic circuits flashed. The sound of boiling food instantly stopped. The smell of cooking food took longer to vanish.

"That's an abuse of Magic."

"Cry more, 'Phantasmoon'."

Both women shared a faint smile.

"No, I don't think so. I could tell right away that the boy wasn't possessed." Arcueid tapped the side of her temples, left eye briefly flashing gold. "The eyes are a window to the soul. He took off those glasses you gave him and used his frightful Mystic Eyes."

"They weren't red, then?"

"No, blue. He's still clean."

"Was he suspicious about how you knew about his eyes?"

"No. Shiki Ryougi is a convenient excuse for people to be wary around Japanese people with Mystic Eyes."

Elesia closed her eyes. "Power attracts power, huh?" She muttered the bitter truth, reaching up to rub the nape of her neck tiredly.

"Are you going to be alright?" Arcueid asked, eyes narrowing slightly. "If it's too much work, we can give up on investigating the Tohno. You're already pulling double shift on me by patrolling and going to that school."

"You need to conserve your power by resting in the day." Elesia shook her head. "I'd be nothing but a load to you if I had you wandering around."

"Well...you warned me about Nanaya's eyes." Arcueid flashed a perky smile Elesia's way. "I surely appreciate not having to turn one of my humans into bloody mist."

"We aren't yours, stupid vampire." Elesia muttered, cleaning her hands against a moist rag she had near the sink. "Despite your claims of sovereignty."

"Still...do we want to keep Nanaya out of this? He's clean, but that adopted family of his might not be. Especially with everything we've found out about how this barrier is set up."

Elesia considered the situation. "Let's talk to him. He has a right to know what's going on in his home town." She concluded with certainty in her tone.

"Ignorance is the greatest sin of them all?"

Elesia remembered waking up in a broken church, staring up at the blonde before her in a gown spun of silver and gold.

"Of course. There can be no forgiveness for that." Elesia replied, trying to shake the image away before she could remember the bodies around her.

"I'd forgive you." Arcueid had a sad smile on her face.

"You've done plenty for me already by introducing me to Aoko." Elesia shook her head as she looked away from Arcueid. "So the least I can do for you now is to use _Ciel_ to completely annihilate that monster from your world." She growled, Magic gathering in her left fist, countless bubbles of blue light floating around her hand in an unbroken chain.

Elesia closed her eyes – remembering the mountains of corpses created at her clawed hands.

"Then I can die too."

* * *

><p>An unforgiving snow storm pelted their group with chunks of ice, causing them to cinch their magical reinforced capes tightly onto their bodies to prevent heat from escaping out into the hungry white void. Boots which had been hurriedly thrown on their feet fought desperately for traction as they leaned forward against the winds to even take a step forwards.<p>

The twelve knights that remained had split off into six groups, with Sion sticking with Riesbyfe as she was the one holding onto the ritual rubbing gleaned off Atlas' contract. Her unit consisted of the shield bearing knight, Sion, and a spear wielding knight.

The six groups split slightly apart with Riesbyfe's in the center of the formation.

"Can you read me, over?" Sion adjusted the harness beneath her cloak, trying to filter through heavy static caused by the snow as she and her unit relied on miniature radios to simply speak to each other over the thick snow.

Eric, the spear wielder, glanced at Sion and fell back slightly from where he had been leading.

"What is it, Miss Atlasia?" He asked, brown hair ruffling in the chill winds.

Sion winced slightly at her goof up, but the older man merely smiled.

"We won't need that procedure." The static did a good job of hiding his amusement. "No transmission beyond extremely short range thanks to this storm."

Sion nodded, and simply held up the chained whip she had been given. "Should I keep this? Wouldn't it be better in Miss Riesbyfe or your hands?" She wondered, the metal jingling slightly as she held it towards him.

"Best if you keep yourself armed." Sion was interrupted by Riesbyfe, who shifted her large weapon to the side. "With this storm we can't tell when someone gets attacked. Best if you hold onto the weapon just in case."

Sion was faintly disturbed that the two knights were being so blunt, but realized that it was probably foolishness in the extreme to not realize what their chances were. She glanced up at the boundary field high in the sky, seperating them from the rest of the world. Ripples of light, reflected by the frozen water in the skies, danced far above her reach.

Just like this mission was going completely out of her calculations.

"Are you alright?"

"I will be. I just need to set up that weapon you had me build, right?" Sion shook her head as she tried to shake off the grim thoughts in her mind. "Tell me, what do you know about the Night of Wallachia?" She pressed the two knights with her.

"It sucks blood." Riesbyfe shrugged, resting her shield against her shoulder. "We kill it."

Sion's eyebrow twitched as Eric laughed.

"Well..." The spearsman replied as he tested a snowbank with his spear, watching it break apart at the slightest prod as they moved past it. "It's like our weapons, right? It takes on concepts. The last group of knights that killed it didn't have to deal with snow."

"Not really." Sion wrapped her whip around the latch on her cloak. "Its reality marble takes in fears and manifests them, specifically." The other group had fought Wallachia in an arid part of the world. Several of the knights had come back nearly dehydrated husks of their former selves. "I don't think it can apply conceptual ideas to itself."

"Hmph." Riesbyfe snorted. "Fears or concepts. It'll still go down once we stab it enough."

* * *

><p>"Gah!" Tonio Bianchetti let out a muffled squeak as the ape like Wendigo made him stagger backwards with a clipped blow to his sternum. His fingers tightened against the enchanted axe in his grip as he rolled backwards, letting the weapon fly at the monster.<p>

The beast swept to the side, dodging the axe. It flashed yellowed teeth at him, beady eyes shining with blood thirsty malice.

"Not dying yet, Kong." The knight jerked his hand, causing the axe to suddenly spin back and slam into the back of the Wendigo's back.

It let out a bellow of rage, misty breath erupting from the depths of its mouth as the axe ground deeper into its body, making the large creature stagger towards the knight. The man rushed forwards to finish it off with a glow from his spiked guantlets, but the ape's face erupted in a burst of gore as a dozen knives slammed into its face.

The Wendigo let out a wet rattle before it fell onto its side.

"That was my kill." He complained, reaching forwards and ripping the axe from the Wendigo's back. His partner merely smiled and shrugged, making her knives vanished from the bodies of the three beasts in their clearing.

"I have enough knives to spare." Elias Jönsson joustled the large pack around her hip. "What's some more between friends?"

A bright flash of light preceeded a thunderous roar as a bolt of lightning tore down from the heavens and promptly split the male knight in half. The female knife wielder let out a scream of agony as her eyes were blinded by an explosion of white light. Her body was lifted into the air and roughly thrown away as an explosion rocked the clearing, rock and dirt raining down noisily.

Her breath rapidly puffed out before her lips as she groped about in the loose snow.

"Hm...what's this...?" A strong, masculine voice spoke up above Elias, the snow crunching loudly before heavy footsteps. "It seems my aim isn't as exact as his was." She gagged as her entire face was palmed by the man's hand.

"Let me g-" Elias's voice cut off into a gurgle as her neck was easily snapped.

The dark figure holding the limply dangling woman casually flung it away, body warping as the desperate fear both knights had felt a split second before their deaths made his form more tangible as he stepped back into the snow storm, vanishing into it despite his dark skin tone.

* * *

><p>The Heinemann siblings, four of them in total, sharply looked up once they heard the explosion. The four knights, knowing what Tatari was capable of doing, quickly moved towards the flash of light in the distance, the two squads cutting through the snowy embarkments.<p>

"Damn it, I can't believe that Tatari was able to use a boundary field this time!"

"Isn't like we can blame the locals, Leon. They can't control what they believe in."

They went quiet after that, flooding their bodies with prana as they prepared themselves for combat. Their silver watches, Mystic Codes that allowed their usage of their combination boundary field, were readied as they saw a tall feminine figure make her way through the snow.

The sound of a chain rattling could be heard.

The four knights, trained for years to stay unflinchingly composed, balked as the snow storm parted, revealing the woman in the flesh. Their senses inverted as the four of them were slammed with an overwhelming curse, causing their vision to blacken as foreign prana surged into their bodies.

They lowered their weapons as they stared rapturously at the woman.

Her hair was like spun gold, with a impish smile and shining eyes, projecting her force of personality into them at first sight. Their gazes grew increasingly lustful the longer they stared at her, dressed only in the flimsiest of pink silk outfits.

"Get out of the way!" One of the brothers roared, reaching for and drawing forth his knife. Before the other three could react, he had buried it into his brother's throat, spilling a fount of blood as he threw himself like a wild animal towards the smug looking blonde.

"You son of a bitch, she's mine!"

The woman's smile turned slightly mocking as she saw the three remaining men begin to grapple at her bare feet, unbothered by the cold nor the dying croaks of the fourth brother, who was lying in a pool of blood. When one of the men desperately reached for her bare ankle, she simply took a step back and wagged a finger at him.

"Nuh uh. Only the winner gets me." She breathed, voice intoxicating the brothers to even greater violence as she simply twirled with the chain tied to her neck, following the links of into the storm as she wondered where her master had gone.

The blonde paced over to the dying brother and plucked his knife as she waited for the final fool to crawl out of the melee a few feet away from her.

* * *

><p>"We're almost there!" Eric called out to them as they ascended the final peak. The winds were biting into them deeply at this point. "Get the weapon unsealed, Stridberg!" Riesbyfe unslung a large package from her back, setting it down amongst the snow.<p>

"Alright, let me see how badly the parts were mangled." Sion muttered as she walked up past Riesbyfe and began to rummage through the box. The frame for the latest invention that Atlas had created the church – the Black Barrel Replica, gleamed within. As she quickly made to assemble the weapon, she felt the presence of Riesbyfe next to her.

"What is it?" She wondered.

"You okay?"

Sion blinked and actually looked up in surprise. Riesbyfe was standing guard, moving herself to keep as much snow from hitting her in the face as she possibly could.

"Yes, I am." Sion blinked.

"Oh, okay." Riesbyfe faintly smiled, expression genuine.

"...why would you ask?" The alchemist pressed as she moved back to assembling the weapon.

"Not many people are comfortable after their first kill. Even if it's something inhuman." Riesbyfe drawled, shifting in place as she brought her shield down to cover Sion a little bit more. "I'm glad you're tougher than I expected. All the other alchemists up to now have been needle necks that screamed and locked up."

"Well, excuse me for not training myself more." Sion's eyebrow twitched.

Riesbyfe laughed. "No, no! It's okay! You've got your head screwed on straight, so it's okay if you don't know everything right away." She reached down and ruffled Sion's hair, sending her cap askew.

"What do you mean by that?" Sion asked, slightly offended as she began to load the gun.

"You've got the instincts of a fighter. You actually did great." Riesbyfe nodded. "You just need a little bit of practice and you'd be all set."

Despite herself, Sion found herself smirking at the ridiculousness as she finished assembling the gun and drawing it out of the box of seals. "Those instincts are things I've plundered from others." She replied, trying to throw the older girl off.

"Hm...then you have a very fine eye for thieving!" Riesbyfe clapped her hands. "Keep it up." Sion laughed as she finished her preparations. Both women had ascended next to Eric as they looked over a pitch black city.

"Ready?" Eric wondered.

Sion slammed the clip of bullets into the gun.

* * *

><p>The city was a frozen graveyard when they arrived. Corpses lay scattered about, ripped to pieces on the snowy streets. The faces of several buildings along the street they were prowling down showed that the bricks had been practically scooped out, several dusty body buried beneath masonry and support beams.<p>

With a start, Sion realized that not a single drop of blood could be seen despite the gore and destruction.

"Finally noticed it?" Riesbyfe asked with a flinty smile. "Unlike some other monsters, the Night of Wallachia leaves the bodies behind."

"Why's that?" Sion asked, damning her own curiousity a few moments later. "It creates more fear for the survivors, right?"

"We'll have to remove the head of the beast before it gets too powerful." Riesbyfe replied, shifting the shield shaped pile bunker she was holding.

Eric held a hand up, making the two women pause as he moved to scout ahead, once he was ahead by a block, he waved them forwards. The three of them kept low to the ground, only pausing when they could hear the howl of another Wendigo in the distance.

_What's going on out there?Was that the other knights moving into the city?_ Sion thought, moving her hand towards the whip on her hip. Their group quickly fell back, using the ruins of a coffee shop as cover, when the roars of the ape like beasts grew louder.

The ground beneath their feet trembled, forcing them to tense as a group of humans, screaming for their lives, rushed across the street in front of them, followed by three Wendigo. Riesbyfe and Eric traded a glance before nodding.

Both of them let out their own roars as they leapt over behind cover, knocking over a green and white sign of a crowned woman as they rushed the Wendigo. The beasts let out cries of shock before Eric and Riesbyfe slammed into two of them, the stake on the end of Riesbyfe's shield stabbing into her target just as Eric's spear did.

The third ape let out a cry of fury as it turned to crush Riesbyfe's back beneath its fists, but Sion sprang up and let loose with her whip. The chain tore through the flesh along its arm, ripping sinew and skin apart easily as the beast howled as it stumbled backwards as Sion rushed forwards, lashing out with blow after blow.

The Wendigo that Riesbyfe and Eric had pierced desperately began to struggle, their fists clawing at the knights. Eric growled and leaned forwards, pressing the Wendigo away from him with his spear, but Riesbyfe received several blows to her shoulders as she barely dodged having her head get pulped. "Fuck you!" She cried as she triggered a switch within her shield.

With a loud thud the spike on the end of her shield fired deeper into the body of the ape she was facing. Blood and spittle flew from the Wendigo's mouth, eyes shrinking to pinpoints as the force of the explosion was threw the monster's body away from her like a rag doll.

Riesbyfe hissed, arms trembling as her shield rumbled, another blessed silver stake sliding out of her shield. She glanced over to see that Eric had managed to pin his target to the ground and was waiting on it to bleed out. Off to the side, she could see five people huddling beneath the ruins of the coffee shop, but she paid them no further attention than that for now as she saw Sion get knocked back by her opponent.

The Wendigo breathed out a cone of ice and snow at the fallen alchemist, but Riesbyfe imposed herself between the girl and the monster, feeling her arms go numb as the full force of the ape's attack smashed into her shield.

"Riesbyfe!" Sion shouted in surprise, trying to pull herself back to her hands and knees as Riesbyfe was forced to crouch down in front of her, holding up her massive shield at an angle to keep them covered as small pieces of ice rained down on top of them from above

Their protection screeched as the shield was pelted by razor sharp iciciles at frightening speeds.

"Stay down!" Riesbyfe shouted, arms screaming as she forced her arms into holding the shield as snow piled down on top of it.

Eric, seeing his Wendigo's struggles finally end, turned towards the two women in alarm. Quickly palming a throwing knife from inside his cloak, he launched it towards the Wendigo. The beast let out a stunned yelp as the blade stuck into its side, forcing it to cut off its attack.

The beast's eyes flashed as it turned towards Eric, fog pouring out of its lips.

The male knight let out a curse as he rushed the monster, his bloody spear sliding out of the corpse he had taken out.

Sion and Riesbyfe sprang to their feet, with the former drawing Black Barrel Replica and taking aim. However, she wasn't able to pull the trigger quickly enough. Just as the Wendigo's head vanished as her gun fired, Eric was impaled by three icicles without any mercy.

Blood flew into the air as the male knight crashed onto his back, spear flying away from his loose grip to embed itself into the ground. The heavier body of the Wendigo sent up a plume of snow as it fell onto its side.

Sion gasped for breath, slumping to her knees in shock from the recoil of the weapon.

"Eric!" Riesbyfe gripped her shield tightly as she ran to her fellow knight's side. Once she was by his side, she finally let her shield drop to the ground as she stared down at his pale, lifeless face. "No!"

The humans that had observed all of this began to stumble out, the majority of them looking shellshocked. Two of them, seeing the raw rage on the silver haired knight's face, chose to pull their number closer to Sion.

"Miss! Were you sent here to save us?" Their cries shook Sion out of her slight daze as she stared at the gooey mess that was left of the Wendigo's skull.

"I..." Sion shook her head to compose herself. She glanced up at the frantic looking group arrayed around her. "N-no, we were here to stop the creatures attacking the city." She reluctantly stated the truth.

"What?"

Getting more control over herself, Sion coolly rose to her feet, snow falling off her cloak. "I apologize but the creature that's attacking will not rest until it's stopped." She replied to their anger and shock, trying to make them understand. "Even if we took you with us out of here, we would be hunted down and killed like dogs."

One of the town's people, a large woman, growled and reached to grabbed Sion. Her arm was stopped in mid-air as Riesbyfe's hand gripped her wrist.

"She's right." Riesbyfe droned, voice harsh and low as she stared at the townspeople. Hints of moisture were in her eyes as she glanced over at Sion. "Don't try to aggitate them." She complained.

Sion nodded, accepting the knight's rebuke.

"So, what? We run until we're slaughtered?" The woman that Riesbyfe was holding yelled at the impassive knight. "It's your responsibility to protect us!"

"Look how well that ended for my friend." Riesbyfe snapped, making the woman flinch. She shoved the woman's arm away from herself as she continued. "What drove you five to even be out here in the first place?"

A slim teenager pulled the stunned woman away from Riesbyfe.

"The town is done for. We wanted to live, so we ran away from that man." A middle aged woman spoke up, shivering from the cold. "He sent those monkeys to drag us back to city hall along with everyone else."

"We need to go." Riesbyfe glanced back at Sion. "We can't let it finish off the rest of this town. It'll be impossible to stop it if it consumes the rest of their blood."

The alchemist glanced over at the fearful humans. "...alright." She reluctantly agreed to the knight's demand.

"Wait!" One of the survivors shouted, rushing the two women. He jerked to a halt when a shining string flew out from beneath Sion's mantle and pierced his head.

"Sleep." Sion commanded, overriding the man's control of his own motorfunctions as he collapsed at her feet.

The remaining four people screamed and started to run, but two of them were swiftly smashed into unconsciousness by Riesbyfe, who rushed after them. One of them collapsed as Sion stabbed into the back of her neck with her etherlite while the last one successfully fled.

"...tch." Riesbyfe scowled in the direction of the runner. "He's a goner." She sadly shook her head as she wrote him off to the beast's in the snow storm. "Finish up with them and we'll move them inside this store." She thumbed in the direction of the destroyed coffee shop, already slinging Sion's first victim across her shoulders as she dragged him into the shop.

Sion quietly started rewriting the memories of the other two that Riesbyfe had knocked out. "What about Eric?" She spoke up, shifting through the memories of the night that the two below her experienced, editing their memories.

Riesbyfe glanced in the direction of her fellow knight. "We'll carry him a block away, destroy his brain, and bury him in the snow." She replied in a monotone. "Only our team knows about the replica. I don't want Wallachia knowing if it turns him."

"Alright then, let's go." Sion agreed as she dusted her hands off. Both women grabbed the last two humans and dragged them into the rubble, covering them with broken pieces of chairs and tables before walking away, each of them using one arm to carry the corpse of their ally between them.

In her other hand, Sion held onto Eric's old spear.

* * *

><p>Justine Bois kept a firm grip on the hilt of her sword as she and her partner entered the meeting sight. Roman Still, her partner, relaxed as they saw the Japanese knight in front of him.<p>

"You're a great sight to see." Roman called out, grinning at Takane. His cheerful greeting to his friend died away when he saw the blood splattered on his robes as Takane Hamaguchi approached their group. "Where's...?"

"She's dead, Mister Still." Takane shook his head, nervously palming a blue gemstone in his hand. "Some freaking giant broke through a wall of a building we were passing and pulled her in before I could even blink."

Justine tensed as her eyes narrowed sharply at Takane.

"D-don't look at me that way, Miss Bois. I used one of my gems to destroy her head before he could do anything to her." Takane took a step back from the woman.

"Wait, you didn't even **try **to help her?" Roman demanded angrily.

"Nothing worked on him! My gems couldn't pierce his skin and Miss Cruz's water magic just slipped off whenever she tried to burn his hand away." Takane defended himself, tone harsh as he glared at the two of them. They hadn't had to see that viciously glowing red eye as closely as he had! "I had to use up half of my gems just to get here in one piece!"

Justine tiredly sighed as she looked around them. "I suppose we have to move on, then." They had to double back a few times when they caught the sound of a chain on the wind. She doubted anyone else would arrive here after they did.

"And that's where you should be wrong." Riesbyfe's voice cut through the wind, which had died down significantly inside the town. The silver haired woman was being followed closely by the Atlas alchemist.

"So he's dead too, huh..." Justine sadly spoke up as she saw her countryman's bloody spear in Riesbyfe's other hand.

"Sorry Bois..." Riesbyfe awkwardly consoled her rival. She quickly glanced around the area, expression falling as she came to a troubling conclusion. "Has it really gotten so powerful that it took nine of us down so easily?"

"Regardless, we've found out from the locals that Wallachia is trying to sacrifice the remaining townspeople over by city hall." Sion spoke up, directing everyone's attention back to her. "I was able to read the location from their minds. It's best that we go before it's too late."

"Then let's go. We won't let the deaths tonight go to waste." Justine focused her attention on Roman and Riesbyfe. "I'll trust you two to protect us going in, right?"

Both knights nodded, expressions firming. With that, the group of five headed out towards the west, lead by the alchemist. Riesbyfe let her pace slow down a little as she moved towards Justine. The swordswoman glanced up at her rival, but Riesbyfe simply handed over the spear.

"When it was all said and done, I think he would have wanted you to have it instead of me." Riesbyfe simply responded. Stunned silent, the swordswoman simply accepted the spear as the silver haired woman continued. "I'm sorry I couldn't save him, Justine."

Justine's heart ached.

"Don't sell yourself so short." Justine took the spear from Riesbyfe with shaky fingers. "You are every bit as important too."

Riesbyfe gave Justine a faintly morbid smile as she moved back to Sion's side.

_What a classic way to end a rivalry, Eric._

* * *

><p>Sion had a look of distaste on her face as she gazed through her binocular. Down below, a giant of a man was reclining on the steps of what her stolen memories told her was city hall. A woman with a minimal outfit was leaning up against his lap, a bronze collar and chain leading up to the man's fist. Both of them were gazing down below as two apes flayed a man apart with their claws.<p>

The woman covered her lips with the back of her hand, but her blue eyes were dancing with mirth.

The giant was simply gazing upon everything with a bored expression, his single red eye glowing softly.

"That's them, huh?" Riesbyfe softly spoke up besides Sion, setting down her own binoculars as she gazed at the three knights that remained. "Or are they curses like the apes? Can you tell which of them is the manifestation? Still? Hamaguchi?"

The group's two mages had difficult looks on their faces as they gazed upon group. Occasionally, one or the other would have to forcibly glance away from the direction of the blonde woman.

"Remember what she represents." Justine quietly hissed, ripping the binoculars away from the two men.

"I'm...not sure. The both of them are on another level compared to the Wendigo that manifested due to the curse." The American shook his head. He looked like he wanted to say something more when he gazed at the blonde, but he chewed on his lip instead, drawing his bible out from his mantle.

"Furthermore, that man was the one that killed Miss Cruz." Takane nodded in agreement with his American counterpart's analysis. "These gemstones I wield had the prana of several of the Church's magi fed into them. They should have killed him."

"So, we're going to have to rely on the Black Barrel Replica." Riesbyfe spoke up, when the other three knights glanced at her in alarm, the silver haired woman merely sighed. "Surprise." She drawled, completely unenthused.

"Don't blame her." Sion called out before the other three knights could say anything. "Your order requested that we attempt to mass produce the Lance of Longinus." She shook her head, sending her braid flying back and forth. "Unfortunately, this is going to have to be our first real trial."

"That's..." Justine hissed in outrage, but the unhinged laughter of Takane and Roman caused her to look at the two men in shock. "What are you tw...ugh!" Roman's fist smashed the woman in the face, knocking her back onto her rear. She quickly scrambled backwards as he pounced at her direction.

Riesbyfe hauled Sion away by the back of her cloak as Takane threw a blue gem at where the alchemist had been crouching. The blast of the gem threw Riesbyfe and Sion backwards as the japanese man drew more and more gems from inside his mantle.

"My, my, what foolish mortals you all are." Roman spoke, voice feminine and husky. "I think I'll see if I can kill you all before Master Alcides grows bored of his toys." With that, both of the men went back to back, Roman ripping out pages from his bible and Takane facing the three women.

The sheets of paper glowed before they rose around the two of them, spinning around them like a barrier.

Two massive Wendigo landed next to the men, snarling at the three women and throwing themselves at them.

"No!" Justine cursed as she leapt back from a sphere of flame that was lobbed at her by Takane. With a vicious snarl, she swung Eric's spear, cleaving the sphere in two and dispelling the attack. Several more were launched at her, forcing her past Riesbyfe and Sion.

The silver haired knight was desperately blocking one of the ape's ice attacks with her shield. The force of this monster's attack was much worse than before, forcing the knight to quickly give ground. The second Wendigo chased after Sion, who was desperately trying to keep back with the chain whip.

"My, you three have much better armaments than the others before you." Takane admired. The man sacrificed another gemstone, summoning a sphere of wind that was launched towards Sion, but Justine moved into its path, breaking the magecraft apart with the spear. "But why won't you show us this 'Black Barrel Replica'?"

For a bizarre, almost perverse in its awkwardness, Sion almost felt inclined to grant the woman's voice her answer.

"Don't!" Riesbyfe shouted over the concentrated storm she was desperately fighting against. "It's an enchantment!"

"Hahah. This is why I like men much more than women. Those that have known the touch of a man are so persistent in seeking it out again." Takane's expression was cruel as he casually launched half of his spheres at Justine. "Please die so I can play with this innocent one, okay?"

On that command, the Wendigo that had been pressing Sion back surged forwards, smashing the alchemist aside as it roared its own breath attack at Riesbyfe. Both Justine and Riesbyfe were both consumed by elemental fury as the spheres of elemental attacks simply overwhelmed Justine at the same time that Riesbyfe was blindsided by the attack of the second Wendigo.

Justine let out a short cry as her body was consumed by flame, a shadowy sphere locking her screams within it. Riesbyfe didn't even have a chance to shout before her body was completely covered by a thick coat of ice from head to toe.

"No!" Sion snarled, stumbling onto one knee. Fury filled her as she dropped her whip and gripped her gun tightly as she fired on the two apes' unprotected backs. Two thin purple rays of light erupted out from the smoking barrel, consuming the upper bodies of the massive Wendigo in a blink of an eye.

The alchemist rolled to her side as the ground she was standing on erupted into ragged ice as a sphere of ice slammed down on top of her former location.

"My! That's rather frightening." Takane mused, looking a bit disappointed that he had missed as only five spheres of elemental magic surrounded him now. "We can't have this near Master Alcides, no no. I'll have to protect him..."

Sion began to back away from the two men as they began to step towards her.

"I wanted to play with you, but you're too dangerous..." A leer crossed Roman's face as he moved next to Takane, the pages of the bible surrounding the two protectively. "So, I'll just have to live vivaciously through these boys."

Unseen by the three, thin, hairline cracks formed along the surface of the shadowy sphere and the ice covering.

"You monster." Sion hissed, bounding backwards as Takane swung the sphere of elemental power in her direction, making her desperately dodge away from the attacks. Her own attempts at striking back with her etherlite were simply blocked by pages of the bible, the sheets as solid and unyielding as steel.

"No, that was my mother." Roman replied. "I'm Aphr-what?"

He spun back around as the shadowy sphere shattered. A bloody, burnt figure trembled within a circle of ash for a moment before flinging the partially melted remains of a spear straight through his chest, piercing the barrier of scripture.

Roman wheezed before he collapsed, taking the barrier down with him.

With her final sigh, Justine collapsed, fingers unlocking from the sheathe of her undamaged sword.

Takane, who was stunned for a brief moment, was no match for Black Barrel, the weapon's hollow point round being less effective against another human, but still every bit as capable of splattering their brains across the street.

The spheres, no longer under control, went out of control, annihilating an area a good three feet in every direction from Takane's spot.

Sion gasped, heart thundering inside her chest from terror at her near miss with disaster. Her eyes cleared as she glanced towards Riesbyfe. She quickly raced across the annihilated streets towards the silver haired woman, mind racing as she tried to figure out how to save her.

The fractures on the ice covering Riesbyfe widened

Then she heard the voice of what was presumably Alcides – booming across the heavens.

"My good mortal," Sion's desperate attempts at finding the man were met by the sight of a bronze giant in the distance, moving in her direction from the direction of city hall. "You, who have survived this Night until the end, are worthy to speak to my esteemed self."

The blonde woman behind him flashed an angry glare to Sion, but her head was bowed with a tug of her collar by the large man.

Sion's vision went red as she gazed upon the man that had slaughtered everyone. Her index finger rubbed along the firing pin of her Replica.

"Hoo? What would that rebellous look be for?" Alcides grinned, showing off sharp fangs at her. "Master Zepia values you, but that does not mean that you need be in one piece before you are turned, child."

When Sion went pale, Alcides began to laugh, a hearty, rich sound.

"The sins of the father always come back to haunt the children, don't they?" Alcides asked as he reached into his leather tunic, drawing out a bottle of blue liquid. "But then, that's a story that's told in all religions. Including this 'Church' of yours."

"Master Zepia said..."

"Hush, Aphrodite. Yours isn't to question me." Alcides growled at the blonde, shutting her up. He turned his gaze back towards Sion. "You don't deserve to be turned by Master Zepia yet, but don't worry..."

His red eye flashed.

"I, the Sovereign, can always refine you with a few Labors." Golden power surged up his arm and into the bottle of liquid. The bottle shattered within his massive hand with a simple squeeze just as the snow storm around them went still.

"_**Nine Lives Storm!**_" Alcides roared, throwing his hand into the skies above as a downpour of rain came down hard on the city.

Sion screamed as the first drop struck her, burning into her skin, followed by several more. The wooden buildings around them were quickly lit aflame as agony quickly consumed Sion, but before her mind was forcibly shut down she heard the distinct sound of something shattering besides her.

* * *

><p>"Hm...my old body and the True Ancestor are back." Shiki Tohno mused, several of the co-opted youkai in the city lending him their eyes as he observed the True Ancestor and Elesia within the city. The youkai, nature spirits themselves, were almost instrincally drawn to the blonde beauty through their mutual connection.<p>

The best early warning system he could create.

Shiki returned away from his landscape view of Misaki's skyline when the phone on his desk began to ring. "This is Shiki, go ahead." The teenager spoke up, answering the line as he calmly drank in the moonlight hitting him in the face.

"Oniichan, this is Akiha." His sister's voice made Shiki disconnect his senses, banishing the image of Arcueid from his mind's eye, "I wanted to see if you were going to be coming home tonight."

Shiki softly smiled. "I'm sorry, but it's turned out that we'll be too busy finishing moving everything into the Shrine. I won't be around until tomorrow night." He paused. "Did Hisui cook for you?" He worried.

Akiha's rich laugh bounced around his office. "No, we went out to eat." She replied happily. "Don't let her hear you ask that, though."

"Well, you'll have to survive without Kohaku until dinner. Should be easy with class tomorrow, right?" Shiki reached for his desk and grabbed a pen, lightly rolling it around in his hands.

"Mmm...oniichan," Akiha's tone grew slightly guarded. "I wanted to call you for a consultation too."

Shiki blinked, "Go on..." He sounded intrigued as he leaned up against his desk.

"I...talked to Shiki-niichan."

The pen snapped in the older brother's hands. "Oh, and what did you talk about?" He coolly asked, ignoring the ink dripping onto the front of his suit.

"...I want him to come back home with Miyako-chan." Akiha regally stated, ignoring the tone that Shiki had used. "Father adopted him. He's as much of a member of our family as Kohaku and Hisui-chan." She quickly concluded, trying to reinforce her words.

_Or maybe that's just what you're using as an excuse._ Shiki thought, face twisting into a scowl.

"Is that so?" He simply said. "Well, you're the head of the family now."

_If only because the other heads overruled me before I could remove them._

"Miyako-chan is all alone whenever you send Shiki-niichan off on errands too. This will be good for them, you'll see."

"Mmm...of course, Akiha-chan."

"Good, then they should be moving withiin two days. Hisui-chan will be getting their rooms ready. Come be a responsible big brother and greet them warmly tomorrow, okay?" With that, the connection was dropped as Akiha disconnected.

"Fufufu, she always has to get the last word, huh?" Kohaku's voice spoke. Shiki looked less than impressed when he glanced over towards his apprentice, who was sticking her head into his office.

"You'll lose that head if you're not careful." Shiki warned the redhead as she pushed the door the rest of the way open and strode into the room.

"Oh my, would you add my head to your collection, then?"

"You're not that special, sorry."

Kohaku reached for her chest, clutching at the spot over her heart. Despite the energetic motions as she squirmed back and forth and slight smile on her face, her golden eyes were cool as she focused on Shiki.

"That hurt. It really hurt." Kohaku shook her head. "Almost as much as when Makihi-"

"Kohaku." Shiki narrowed his eyes at the girl, who's smile widened a little bit more.

"Shrine has been brought online." The redhead mechanically intoned, running a hand through her loose red hair. "Operating systems and power are suboptimal."

"Where's your ribbon?" Shiki wondered, noticing the lack of such on her head. The girl merely shrugged.

"Shiki gave it to me. I don't want it to be bloodier than it already became."

"Hmph. That's fine, then." Shiki turned his back on the maid and continued to gaze out at the moon. "You're dismissed."

"Oh good. I've been dying to try out my latest copy of Castlevania."

"Is that so?" Shiki leaned back into his seat as he started looking for the two invaders again. "How is it?"

Kohaku, who was at the exit to Shiki's office, paused in surprise at that question.

"Spoiler: The vampire dies." She replied.

Shiki's laughter followed Kohaku out of the room.

* * *

><p><em>Wise Up!<em>

Gods and Elemental Spirits

What is a god?

A miserable pile of sec-

Actually, it's a combination of faith and a common elemental! Elementals are spiritual bodies of animals and nature itself. Kojiro isn't considered an elemental despite being a spiritual entity. Why's that?

He's a ghost. Wraiths of humans aren't considered part of nature.

Shut up.

Elementals can take on human shape, but you have to remember that they have very alien thought processes despite that. Think of our youkai or the faeries of England. Arcueid herself is considered an Elemental too. The highest model.

How do I know that? Let's say I dream of scary cats and tigers when I sleep. They grant answers to all of life's mysteries.

If humans believe strongly enough in something, our home planet of Gaia may allow one of her elementals, children of her will, to graduate up to what you or I call 'God'.

Gods possess frightful abilities, able to use Marble Phantasm or even a type of magecraft called a 'Reality Marble' at will. They also possess all manner of other powerful skills and magicks that we granted to them with our belief.

In the end they're governed by human belief, though. If we stop believing in them, they'll go back to being an elemental.

Oh yeah! By the way...

There's a very thin line between Demon and God.

On a scale of one to Arucied: Gods are about lemon meringue pie.

Sorry, I was never very good with power levels...


End file.
